The Red String
by Evra7
Summary: Mythology states that the gods tied a red string around the little fingers of people who are meant to marry each other. It is so with Rose and Dimitri. No matter their situation, they will always end up together.
1. Chapter 1

_Mythology states that the gods tied a red string around the little fingers of people who are meant to marry each other. It is so with Rose and Dimitri. No matter their situation, they will always end up together._

**The Red String**

_I staked the Strigoi, watching the light fade from his eyes. I put his body behind the dumpster, and then continued on my way home from the Nightingale. I had not been successful tonight. I had tried talking to the Moroi, but their Guardians wouldn't let me._

"_So you're the one who's been leaving all this work for me," a voice said._

_I froze, and turned around. I had thought that someone had been following me. I now saw that it was a human._

"_You can't just leave their bodies for anyone to find," she told me._

"_Well, I was waiting for the sun to incinerate them," I said. "Who are you anyways?"_

"_I'm an Alchemist," she said._

_Screams filled my ears, but the Alchemist (whatever those were) didn't seem to hear them. The screaming continued, but then I realized that the screaming was not coming from my own dream. Soon my own dream was fading, and Lissa's was becoming real._

_The car was mangled, smoke rising out of the hood. Lissa looked around, scared. She saw me, laying there. I looked dead. She touched me, something weird welling up in her chest. And then, I opened my eyes. Lissa felt a wave of relief, until she looked on her other side to see Andre. _

"_Oh. God, Andre," she whispered. There was a giant hole in his stomach, and his blood was everywhere, including on her._

_I knew then that this was definitely a dream. I needed to wake up. To free myself of Lissa._

_I fought my way out of her head, and into the waking world, _

I finally woke up, still tangled in Lissa's nightmare. I could still feel her terror. It was hard to shake. Even though in her dream, she was dealing with the aftermath of the crash, part of it was still playing what happened during the crash. The first curse, the screams, the resounding crunch as metal twisted around the tree, the pain in her chest from the seat belt.

I shook myself out of it again.

Lissa was mumbling in her sleep, sheets twisting around her legs.

I stumbled from the bed, my legs unsteady.

I sat down on the side of her bed.

"Lissa, it's just a dream. Just a dream, you're not there anymore."

Her eyes popped open, and she sat up. I engulfed her in a hug, rubbing soothing circles on her back. "I was back there," she cried. "It felt so real!"

"I know, I know," I said. "Do you need some water?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she said, hiccupping. "But I'll get it myself. I already woke you up."

I didn't bother arguing with her, because I could tell that she would not let me argue with her. I sighed noticing how Oscar the cat was suddenly at the window. Cats usually loved Moroi, but they hated me. Oscar seemed to only tolerate me.

I got up from the bed and looked to see what Oscar was staring at. The yard was covered in shadows. Under the tree stood a man. He was very tall, and seemed to be staring up into our window.

Wait. A man was in our yard!

I felt my heart begin to race. I pulled the shades down and rushed to put on some pants and a bra.

I ran down the stairs. "Liss, we need to go!"

I noticed our roommate, Jeremy, for the first time. In front of him was a calculus book; he was staring at it in distaste.

"Why?" she asked.

"They've found us," I told her.

"Are- are you sure?"

I nodded, "Yeah. We need to leave now."

Jeremy looked up at us, confused.

"Take his keys," I told her.

She walked over to him, and his eyes began to widen. She was using compulsion. I looked away, trying not to be affected by it. Even after two years on the run, I still felt uncomfortable when she used it.

I'd been taught all my life that using compulsion was wrong.

He handed over his car keys and we left quickly, Lissa quickly stopping to pet Oscar the cat one last time.

We ran out the door, down the street; we ran as fast as we could. We ran as if our lives depended on it- well, they sort of did, actually.

But then the man that had been standing in our yard stepped in front of us, when we were just a block away from Jeremy's beat up Honda.

I planted my foot on the ground, intent to about-face and run in a different direction. But then, I noticed that there were even more guardians behind us. They had us completely surrounded. Not even the Queen traveled with this many guardians.

I turned back to the guardian who had been peeping on us before. "Lissa, on the count of three, run," I whispered. I hoped that the guardians didn't hear me.

"One…" I whispered. I could feel her breath on my neck. "Two…" I could see the man's calculating stare. His eyes narrowed. I could tell he knew, but I had to try. "_Three!"_

I sprung up as hard as possible. I balanced my body like I had been taught in the self-defense class that I had taken at the Y. I tried to roundhouse kick him, remembering to use the ball of my foot to impact him.

He grabbed me, and in an instant I knew that it was going to hurt when he dropped me. I would probably be bleeding all over the asphalt.

I also knew, however, that Lissa had managed to get passed him. He noticed this, too. He seemed to think for a moment before deciding to set me down nicely.

He then casually walked away from me, only needing to walk to catch up with Lissa. _Big mistake, Mr. Guardian. _

I got up, and ran at his back. I tried to jump on him before he grabbed her. When I managed to attach myself to his lower back, I cried out "Lissa, keep running!"

She looked at me, her jade green eyes wide. She seemed to be considering something. And then she said, "Rose, just give it up." Her fear was palpable, thrumming through me like a constant buzz. I was dizzy from her fear.

"What?" I screamed, letting go of the Guardian in the my shock.

The Guardian looked at me and smiled just a little. "Hello. My name is Dimitri Belikov, and I have come to take you both back to St. Vladimir's Academy."

I gritted my teeth. "You aren't going to get us!"

The Guardian picked me up. "It would seem this one isn't willing to go as quietly," he said. Was that a Russian accent?

I kicked and punched him, trying to get out of his arms. Each punch and kick seemed to hurt me worse than him, but I continued, urging Lissa to try to run.

She didn't listen. Of all the times she chose not to listen to me, why did she choose now?

We boarded a plane, and finally I gave up. I was _exhausted. _More so than when we had escaped the academy. How long had it been since I last fed?

As much as I didn't like him, I had to admit that Dimitri Bel- whatever was pretty smart.

He took one look at Lissa and I and ordered for us to be sat on separate sides of the plane. "Five minutes together, and they'll be plotting an escape," he told the other guardians.

I threw him a haughty look, even though we _had _been plotting an escape.

The Giant Russian sat next to me throughout the plane ride, and at one point, he leaned forward. His hair fell into his face, and six _Molnija _marks were exposed. Six? He'd killed _six _Strigoi?

He didn't talk at all, just staring blankly ahead in a way that only guardians seemed to be able to do. It had always amazed me when I had been growing up.

When we got to the airport, we were shoved into a black Chevy Equinox. Lissa got put in the passenger seat and I was placed in the back seat with Mr. Guardian.

I tried not to stare at him, because in a different situation, I would have said he was hot. He had brown hair that was tied back in a hair tie and a nice tan. For someone who spent his life in the night, he sure got a lot of sun.

I also noticed that he had brown eyes. They were warm. And chocolaty.

_Snap out of it, Rose! _I told myself.

I forced myself to stare straight ahead, feeling the nervous hum of Lissa's emotions. I sent a glare at her, hoping she'd feel it burning. I'd worked so hard to bust us out of that school, for her, and she'd given herself up!

I remembered Ms. Karp's panicked voice. She had told me that they would try to take Lissa away, too. They had said that people were following her. That the more she used it- whatever _it _was- the worse _it _would get.

I couldn't let Lissa stay here for long. I had to help her.

As we drove towards the school, I realized that I hadn't fed in a few days. If I had fed even just yesterday, I could have used my magic to fight. Why hadn't I even attempted it?

I wanted to slap myself in the face!

I showed an unusual amount of self-restraint and kept staring forward.

We finally arrived at the school, and I braced myself for a famous Kirova-style lecture.

We weren't going the usual way to Kirova's office. I looked up at the Mr. Guardian. "Hey, Comrade," I panted, trying to keep up. "Are you taking us to Kirova?"

"Headmistress Kirova," he corrected.

I realized where they were taking us. Straight through the commons at breakfast time. Lovely. I wondered if they were doing it purposefully. Probably.

"Is this supposed to be part of our punishment?" I whined at him.

He just glanced down and then kept walking. He sure was a delight.

People were staring at us as we walked through the commons. I mostly made eye contact with the royal Moroi, because they were the people that Lissa and I had always hung around with.

Aaron, Lissa's ex-boyfriend, was still at St. Vladimir's, it seemed. On his arm was a doll-like Moroi who looked like she was ten. Unless Aaron had become a pedophile in our two-year absence, she must have been older than that.

Aaron had the same golden looks as Lissa. They complemented hers so well, but she'd never seemed to really like him. They'd even had sex once, but she'd said that it was "not anything special" and had teased me about thinking that the planets would align during sex.

Speaking of sex, I made eye-contact with Jesse Zeklos as we passed him, shooting him a wink. He grinned at me. I'd forgotten about Jesse. He was as sexy as ever.

We passed by my Dhampir friend Eddie, who grinned and waved. I have him a saucy look as we passed.

We finally arrived in Kirova's office.

"Princess Dragomir," Kirova said, standing up in a show of silly respect. Lissa hated that.

"Vasilisa," a voice sounded from the corner. I turned, and saw Victor Dashkov standing in the corner. He was holding onto a cane. I tried not to gasp, but still cringed when I saw him.

Victor had developed Sandovsky's Syndrome right before we had left. It had been in it's beginning stages then. I had heard it was bad, but I hadn't realized it would get this bad.

His face was chapped and wrinkled, his hair greyed and thin. Victor was only about forty, but his disease made him look about eighty.

"Uncle!" she said, both excitement and revulsion coursing through the bond.

Victor wasn't really her uncle, but the Dashkov's were the closest family to the Dragomir's. They even shared the same jade green eyes.

She hugged him, worried she might break him if she squeezed him too hard.

She let go and Kirova began her lecture.

Her lecture was even better than I remembered them being. I hadn't thought they could be improved upon, but this was even better than the ones I had gotten all my life.

For a long time, she lectured Lissa. Then she turned to me and unleashed her fury.

"Rosemarie Hathaway, you should have known better than to take a Royal Moroi off campus! And to accompany her! She is the last of her line! Strigoi would love to see the end of the Dragomir's. Would you like to have answered to the Queen if Princess Vasilisa had been killed?"

I couldn't get a word in edgewise, and she continued on in the same manner for quite a while until she said, "If I had my way, you would be expelled, Miss Hathaway. Luckily for you, someone has paid for you to stay on campus."

Someone had bribed for my place in St. Vladimir's? Why would anyone do that? Who would do that? Only Royals who screwed up generally had to do so.

"So, to make up for your little stunt before fleeing St. Vladimir's, you will have to spend an hour after every school day with your Guardian-"

Before I could stop myself, the words tumbled out. "Since when do I have a Guardian?"

Kirova shot me a withering look, telling me exactly what she thought of my interruption. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she had a calm look in them.

"Since you decided to run away! Someone had to be assigned, and the same person who has paid for your spot to stay here requested Guardian Belikov as your Guardian."

"Who paid for me to be here?"

"I am not at liberty to say," Kirova told me tightly.

"Now both of you go to the counselors and get your schedules. You'll go straight to class after."

I got an old counselor who I thought would have been retired by now. Or dead. He asked me what classes I'd taken in Portland and Chicago, what element I'd specialized in, and what classes I'd taken before I'd left.

When I was sent to class, I looked at my schedule.

_Period 1: Russian I_

_Period 2: American Colonial Literature_

_Period 3: Specialized Elemental Control_

_Period 4: Ancient Poetry_

_-Lunch-_

_Period 5: Animal Behavior and Physiology_

_Period 6: Pre-Calculus_

_Period 7: Moroi Culture 4_

_Period 8: Slavic Art_

I was certain I would have most of my classes with Lissa. We had always tried to take almost all the same classes, though I couldn't control the elemental class.

She still hadn't specialized, and I never brought it up. It was a spot of embarrassment for her. I had specialized early, in my freshman year. I had never particularly liked any of my classmates, however. Especially not Ralf Sarcozy.

I walked to my first class. Russian I. I had never taken Russian before, but Lissa had taken it our freshman year. I hoped she was in it again.

I got to the classroom and opened the door. Everyone looked up from their conversation, and all noise stopped.

I looked at the teacher, Ms. Maslova. She stared at me, open-mouthed.

"Rosemarie Hathaway," she said. I grimaced.

I could tell by her tone that she hadn't missed me.

I was sure none of the teachers had, however. I had been quite the wild-child the last time I had been here.

"Ms. Maslova," I said I had to keep myself from calling her by her first name, Yelena. Mostly, Ms. Maslova had been a pain when I had been here.

"_Gospodin Maslova," _she corrected. I nearly ground my teeth.

"Where do you want me to sit, then?" I asked.

She pointed in the back next to doll-girl. "Next to Ms. Rinaldi," she said.

I bit back a retort and nodded.

Doll-girl glared at me, her face red.

I glared back.

I managed to survive the class without getting murdered by or murdering Doll-Girl.

Ms. Maslova gave me more homework than everyone else, plus a huge text book.

If I had known taking Russian would be this much work, I wouldn't have done it.

My next class was American Colonial Literature, and it was as boring as I had expected. At least Lissa was in this class with me, I reasoned.

But she was across the room, sat next to some other royals. Was the teacher that prejudiced against normal Moroi? I knew that she was royal, but I hadn't realized.

I hugged Lissa after the bell rang. "What class do you have fourth period?" I asked.

"Ancient Poetry," she said.

"Good! We have that class together, too!"

I smiled at her as I took a different hallway to my class.

I was looking forward to my next class. I hadn't had a class to help control my element in so long. I was probably hopelessly behind, because I hardly ever used it while we had been out in the human world.

I walked into the class and saw all the people who had specialized in fire since I had left. Ralf Sarcozy, Jacob, Jesse Zeklos, and Christian Ozera.

I smiled at Jesse. He should have had a _Warning: Flammable _sign attached.

He smiled back.

I wasn't surprised by that. Guys always smiled back at me. I didn't think they could help it; considering I was Moroi, I had a great body.

I had been told that I looked more like a Dhampir. While Moroi girls usually had very slim builds and tall frames, I had a very curvy body. I was pretty short, too. At least, short by Moroi standards. It was hardly surprising, however. My mother, Janine, was only five-foot-one. I must have gotten my height (and hair) from my father.

I had heard he was Turkish, but I had never met him. I hardly knew Janine, either. Mostly because she was dedicated to her job at Court. As soon as I turned four, she had dropped me off at the Academy and had never really looked back.

"Ms. Hathaway," Mr. Ibanescue said. "What brings you back to St. Vladimir's?"

I couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not. I shrugged at him. "Just thought we should finish our education," I said.

"Very well," he sighed. "Take a seat next to Mr. Ozera."

I had to sit next to Christian?

It wasn't that I didn't like Christian. It was just that being seen near him wouldn't be good for my fledgling reputation.

"Today, class we will be working on keeping little flames under control."

I sighed in disgust. I had almost forgotten that the Moroi didn't use their magic for anything useful. Just to play with it.

Christian had the same facial expression. I took it he wasn't a fan of this type of magic, either.

I suffered through the class that I had looked forward to the most.

I debated whether I should bolt as soon as the bell rang, or try to talk to Jesse.

I decided to just leave as soon as possible.

I could hopefully sit next to Lissa in my next class.

The bell rang and I practically ran out of the classroom.

I sat down in the back of the Ancient Poetry classroom and put my new books in the seat next to me.

I could feel Lissa approaching. She smiled at me as she walked in and I moved my books out of her seat. "Thanks for saving it," she told me.

"No problem. How has your day been?" I asked her.

Worry and stress hummed through the bond, but I could tell she was trying to hide it from her face.

"Has anyone been giving you trouble?" I asked.

"No. No one has."

She was lying. "You can tell me who it was, Liss."

"I hate it when you do that, Rose." She looked at me, her green eyes slightly watery.

"I can't help it," I told her. "I can just feel it. Who's been giving you trouble?"

She opened her mouth, but the bell rang.

Relief sung out of her, and I sighed. She had been saved by the bell.

This class was boring, too. I took out the syllabus from Russian and wrote on the back of it.

_Who's been bothering you?_

I pushed the note towards her, but she just ignored it. I pushed it into her arm, but merely stared at the board. I could feel her determination to not tell me. That, and she was a nerd. She really loved poetry.

I sighed and took the note back and shoved it with the rest of my new papers.

The bell rang, and before I could say anything she asked me a question. "Do you want to go to the feeders?" she asked.

I nodded. "It's been a while since we fed, huh?" I asked. I could feel it, too. I was so weak. Mr. Ibanescue hadn't even needed to teach me to control a small flame today. I had been too weak to produce anything else.

All that, added in with last night's exercises, today had been wearing even though I had hardly done anything.

I despised feeling as weak as I did.

As we walked towards the feeders, I noticed Dimitri fall into step behind us. Of course, even when we were safe in the wards, my guardian would follow me everywhere.

I didn't know if he'd really be comfortable when he realized where we were going.

We walked into the feeders room and signed in. Lissa was taken back first. Probably priority, since she was the last Dragomir.

I was taken back next. My feeder was Alice. I remembered her from before I had left. She was a kooky lady. I guess that was what years of Moroi endorphins did to you. I had always kind of liked Alice, though.

"Welcome back, Rose."

"Hey, Alice."

"Have you been keeping the Princess safe?" she asked me.

"Oh yes I have, Alice," I said sitting down in the chair next to her.

"Oh good. She will need protection in the future," she said.

I smiled at her and leaned close to her neck. As I got closer, she let out a gasp of excitement. I tried not to show how disgusted I was by her addiction.

It was nice that we had people to volunteer for this. It really was. But they were still looked down upon, since they were just junkies. They were dependent on us.

I could also tell that Alice was almost maxed out for the day. I would probably be her last bite.

I bit into her neck and felt her relax in pleasure. I didn't put any mind to it. That was the normal response.

I drank her blood, feeling better and better as time went on. I realized I was almost drinking too much. It had been that long since I had fed.

I stopped drinking.

Alice still looked out of it. She probably enjoyed the bite just as much as I had.

"Thanks, Alice," I smiled at her. I was still hungry, but I decided I would content myself with real food.

"You're welcome, Rose. You keep protecting the Princess."

"I will," I promised. "Bye."

"Goodbye."

Her eyes were wide and happy, and her voice sounded far away. She was so high.

I left, and Lissa was waiting in the foyer for me.

"That took you longer than normal," she commented.

"I was hungry," I told her.

"Rose, you know you shouldn't take more than normal, still."

Lissa was worried about my well-being. I could tell. She was worried that I would have finished off my feeder and become Strigoi.

"Don't worry, Liss. I didn't drink that much. It took them a few minutes to take me back, too," I reassured. "By the way, Alice asked about you."

"Alice?" she asked.

"You remember Alice?"

"Yes, Rose," she sounded exasperated. "I'm just surprised she remembers me."

The bond told me that she was also shocked that Alice hadn't been taken away yet. They did that when feeders got too old, for their health.

I had seen an old man once. He had been vicious, ready to defend his right to vampire bites.

Except he had been too weak, too old, too dependent on his fix to do anything to the guardians that had taken him away.

"She remembered me, too," I told her. "I think we must have the best endorphins in the school," I joked. All Moroi endorphins were the same.

She grinned. "We must. You wanna go to lunch, now?"

I nodded and she stood up from her chair.

I felt so much better than I had. I felt reenergized.

I walked out of the room and saw Dimitri waiting outside the doorway.

I wondered if he had heard our conversation about over-feeding.

I heard his light footsteps following us all the way to the commons. After that, he went to sit with some of the other guardians in the room.

He didn't appear to say much to them, and they didn't say much to him, besides the introductory hello.

Lissa and I got in line for food.

She got yogurt. I got the whole lunch.

Her face looked disgusted. "I don't know how you eat all that, right after feeding," she said.

I shrugged at her. I looked around the commons, searching for somewhere to sit.

We looked at each other. "We should lay low," I told her. I began to whisper. "I'm gonna get you out of here. So it's best not to tangle with the other royals."

She nodded. I spotted someone across the room. "Why don't we sit with her?"

Lissa looked where I was.

Her gawky near-cousin, Natalie, was waving at us.


	2. Chapter 2

We sat next to Natalie and her friends for the duration of lunch.

As lunch went on, I remembered why we had never spent time with any of them. They were so boring.

"I heard that you ran away to get an abortion, Rose," she said.

I narrowed my eyes at her. "No."

"Why'd you run away then?" Natalie's friend, Erin asked. Erin was just as boring as Natalie. Even more-so, actually. She had the personality of a dry-wall.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I grinned at them.

"What did you do about feeding?" Natalie asked.

Lissa and I looked at each other. We couldn't tell them the truth, that she had used compulsion on all our donors.

"It's really easy, actually," I said. "A lot of people are willing to do anything to get high. And afterwards, they're usually too out of it to remember."

"But our feeders remember us," one of Natalie's smarter friends said.

I nearly ground my teeth. "Maybe they just don't want to remember the night before," I shrugged.

They finally got the hint and left it alone.

Soon, lunch was over and Lissa and I walked together to Animal Behavior and Physiology.

We sat down next to each other. I noticed that Doll-Girl was in this class as well. I sighed. Was there no escaping her?

Doll-Girl sneered at Lissa. I looked back and forth between them. Lissa just looked confused and hurt.

"Are those the only clothes that a precious Dragomir can afford now?" Mia asked scathingly.

I got up and yanked her away from Lissa. I wasn't the strongest, - though I was strong for a Moroi- but Doll-Girl was very light.

"She can , which is why you're done talking to her," I told her.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked. "You screw with me, I'll screw you right back!"

There were so many things I could say to that. Instead, I opted for something that was going to bother her more. "Are you lost, little girl?"

She huffed.

"The elementary campus is that way. I think it's your naptime, anyway," I told her.

Her eyes narrowed.

"Don't mess with us. You can ask Dawn Yarrow what I did to her arm in ninth grade, if you don't believe me."

The teacher walked in, and Doll-Girl backed off.

She slinked back to sit with Carly and Camille.

"Good afternoon, class," Ms. Meissner said.

Everyone quieted down, and I took my seat next to Lissa.

After class was over, we went our separate ways to math. I had stupid-math (Pre-Calculus).

I barely made it through the class. I had a feeling that I would be struggling through that for the whole year.

The rest of the day continued on in much the same manner.

I dreaded going to see Dimitri after school. I also wondered what we were going to do.

Probably some awful Dhampir exercise. I could just imagine it; he would probably have me clean!

After Slavic Art, I talked to Lissa for a few minutes. I figured I would get there when I got there.

"Liss, please, can you just coast through everything?"

"Coast?" she asked.

"Yeah," I told her. "I'm going to get us out of here soon. I promise, I am going to find a way."

Her eyes widened and glistened slightly. She was so fragile. I could tell that she wouldn't be able to handle the royals.

"But Andre-"

"Andre is dead."

Her eyes narrowed in anger. "You know, you can be a real bitch sometimes," she told me.

"You don't keep me around to be nice," I said. "Look, I'm sorry. It's just that Andre was himself, and you are you. You don't have to be Andre. Your parents would be proud of you, no matter what."

I heard steps coming towards us and lowered my voice. "I promise, I'll get us out."

She nodded.

It was then that I realized who had been walking towards us. "Princess," came Dimitri's voice.

"Hello, Guardian Belikov," Lissa said with a light smile.

"Ms. Hathaway," he said. He grabbed my arm gently. "You're late."

"Alright, alright," I said, looking up at him. "Don't get your panties in a twist."

I felt Lissa's shock through the bond.

_Rose_, she thought.

I shook my head at her. "I'll see you later, Liss."

She smiled and gave my hand a squeeze.

She walked away, and Dimitri began to lead us to the library.

"So, what are we doing, Comrade?" I asked.

He looked down at me. His brown eyes were narrowed, and I couldn't read what he was thinking.

"Don't call me that, Miss Hathaway," he said.

"Then don't call me Miss Hathaway, Comrade."

"Alright, Rosemarie-"

I cut him off. "My name is Rose. Not Rosemarie. Not Miss Hathaway."

He nodded tersely.

"So what are we doing, Dimitri?" I asked. I couldn't bring myself to call him by his Guardian title.

He rolled his eyes, and for a moment, I swore that I saw a hint of amusement cross his face.

"You're going to start on today's homework," he explained.

I groaned. "Homework?"

"I know your past grades don't exactly reflect this, but I am sure you know what homework is."

I felt a spark of anger. Nobody ever took me seriously.

"I don't want to do homework," I whined. "I want to do something productive."

"Homework is very productive," he said. "It will help you prepare for your future."

I'd never given much thought to my future. What _did _I want to do with my life?

I knew that lots of Moroi took desk jobs, or even jobs out in the human world. However, I couldn't imagine doing anything. I supposed that I had to do something to live.

I felt so dense. Had I just assumed that I would be living off of Lissa's trust fund?

"I guess," I whined. "But we won't do homework everyday," I decided.

"What else would we do?" he asked.

I gave it some thought. What would I like to be doing?

I thought back to my confrontation with Mia, for some reason. I'd told her that I would break her in half. And I was capable of doing some sort of damage, I realized. I had broken Dawn Yarrow's arm on accident in ninth grade.

I thought back to class with Christian Ozera, and as if I had summoned him myself, I was sucked into Lissa's head.

Lissa was going into the church. I wondered what she was doing, and how she had been able to keep it a secret from me.

I could sense she wasn't there to worship.

I knew I was right when she glanced around sneakily and ascended a set of stairs I hadn't known were there.

She was in the church attic. She felt a sort of calm settle over her. This was her de-stressing, I realized. This was her place.

A voice came from behind, startling her.

"You can have the academy, but not the window seat," it said.

"Who's there?" she asked. She jumped up from the seat, her pulse pounding in my ears.

A shape formed out of the darkness. Familiar features materialized. Messy dark hair. Blue eyes. And a sardonic smirk. Christian Ozera. Would he never be out of my life?

"Don't worry," he said. "I won't bite… well, at least not in the way you're afraid of," he giggled.

She didn't think it was all that funny. And really, it wasn't. Vampire jokes.

She had forgotten about him. I could feel it in the way she bit her lip, half guilty and half anxious. She felt bad for forgetting him, but anxious because she didn't know what he would do.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"Taking in the sights, of course. That chair with the tarp on it is particularly lovely this time of year. Over there, we have an old box full of the writings of the blessed and crazy St. Vladimir. And let's not forget that beautiful table with no legs in the corner."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

A look passed by in his eyes. "Well, what about you?" he taunted. "Why are you up here? Don't you have parties to go to or lives to destroy?"

Hurt flashed through the bond. Lissa let the feeling pass and allowed herself to be annoyed instead. "Wow, that's hilarious. Am I like a rite of passage now? Go and see if you can piss off Lissa to prove how cool you are? Some girl I don't even know yelled at me today, and now I've got to deal with you? What does it take to be left alone?"

"Oh," he said. Understanding crossed his features. "You're up here for a pity party?"

"This isn't a joke! I'm serious," Lissa defended.

"So am I," he said coolly. "I love parties. Especially pity parties. I wish I'd brought the hats. What do you want to mope about first? How it's going to take you a full day to be popular and loved again?"

He looked like he was going to keep ranting, so Lissa interrupted him. I wished she showed this much gumption all the time. "No. It's just hard being back. I liked it better when I had freedom."

Christian's expression softened. "What was it like, being out there in the real world?"

She looked at him appraisingly, wondering if he really cared or if he was being sarcastic.

"It was wonderful," she told him. "It was pure freedom. Rose and I did whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted."

He had a faraway look in his eyes and absent-mindedly said, "As if anything would have stopped you two from doing whatever anyways."

"What does that mean?" she asked, a little annoyed.

"Just that when you two were here before, you ran the place. You both did whatever you wanted to or with whomever you wanted. Rose might have gotten in trouble a lot, but more often she didn't. Nothing would stop you two from doing what you really want."

Lissa's feelings weren't pulsing quite so strongly now, and I was able to get out of her head.

When I got back to my own body, I found Dimitri staring at me worriedly.

"Rose? Rose?" Dimitri asked, waving his hand in front of my face.

"Sorry," I said.

"Are you okay?" he asked, relief evident in his voice. He was probably worried that his charge had had a stroke or something, and really, I didn't blame him. I'd be worried about it too, especially on the first day on the job.

"Yeah, I was with Lissa," I explained.

He looked at me confusedly.

"I was in her head," I clarified.

"In her… head?" he looked just as perplexed as before.

"It's part of the bond," I told him.

Understanding swept onto his features shortly before his mask was replaced.

"Is she alright?"

"Yeah, just stressed. How about we get to the library?" I asked.

He looked at me incredulously. I completely understood, because I had sort of shocked myself as well.

It was just the idea of not knowing what I wanted to do with my life that made me want to focus harder. I had to figure it out. I had no idea why I'd never thought about it before.

I motioned for us to continue on, and we did.

When we got to the library, I looked around nervously. I didn't want anyone to see me.

I chose a secluded corner.

"What were you assigned today?" Dimitri asked.

"Um," I thought. "I have homework for Russian, Colonial Literature, Ancient Poetry…" I thought some more, going through my schedule for the day and what we had done. "Also, for pre-calc and Slavic Art."

"How about we work on Russian first?" he suggested. "I can help with that."

I smiled. "Okay, but um, it's going to make me look really stupid when you know the whole language, and I basically don't know anything."

"That's okay. I was like that when I first began learning English," he said. It did help with the embarrassment I was already feeling.

"So what do you have to do?" he asked.

Dimitri helped me until my allotted hour was up. "Rose, I have a suggestion for you," he said.

I looked at him, raising both of my eyebrows.

"Why don't you take notes in class?"

"Notes?" I asked, aghast.

He nodded. "They help when you have a test, or when you're just doing your homework. Especially in classes like pre-calculus and Russian. Also, maybe you could keep a planner-"

I cut him off. "Don't get ahead of yourself, Comrade. I'll consider taking notes."

He smiled hesitantly. It made my heart flutter just the tiniest bit, but I pushed the feeling down.

"Okay, Rose. But you never answered about what you would like to do when you weren't working on homework."

"I don't really know," I said. "Can I get back to you on that?"

He nodded. "Of course."

I got up from the table, putting my belongings back into a backpack that someone had finally thought to give to me at the end of the day. It was an ugly thing, and I could tell it had been in the lost and found. For good reason, too. Backpacks like this were meant to be lost.

Dimitri must have noticed my frown at the backpack, because he said, "Your things from Portland should arrive sometime in the coming week."

I nodded and zipped the bag.

"So I'll see you tomorrow afternoon?" I asked.

He nodded. "Same time, same place."

We walked out of the library, and as I was walking towards the Moroi dormitory, I heard him call out to me. "And Rose?"

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"Don't forget about your house arrest!"

I groaned and fought the urge to show him what I thought of his reminder.

I heard him chuckle as he walked away. I grumbled as I walked into the dormitory. I was a social creature, and shouldn't have been caged the way I was.

I walked into my own room, wondering if Lissa shared with me. I had a feeling they weren't taking any chances.

I finished up my homework and thought about Lissa's exchange with Christian. I wished I could check up on her, but didn't know how to. Instead, I just listened in to her emotions. I wondered if she was back yet.

I supposed I would just have to wait until the next day.

I thought over what I wanted to do tomorrow after school. I could work on homework. Or I could take up a hobby. I'd never had a hobby. The only thing that had come close was getting into fights and flirting.

I couldn't flirt with anyone with Dimitri there. That would be weird. And uncomfortable.

But maybe… I could practice more magic. Maybe I could practice magic while Dimitri was there! But magic wasn't very fun when you just used it to show off or do parlor tricks like everyone seemed content to do.

Could I… Could I practice offensive magic?

No. Definitely not. It wasn't legal. It was looked down upon. And normally, I would be all over that, but I couldn't get kicked out. Not without Lissa, anyways.

I decided I'd just practice my magic anyways. I needed to get caught up with my classmates. I had barely used my magic at all when we were out in the human world. It would have been bad to get caught doing that.

And it would have hurt Lissa's feelings. She didn't like to be reminded that she had yet to specialize in an element. Except now, she would be reminded every day.

Yet another reason to break out of this school again.

I sighed. As much as I hated to admit it, I liked it here. I liked having feeders on hand. I liked being able to talk to people about normal Moroi things.

But I had to get Lissa out. We had only been here a day and it was already wearing on her.

We had been best friends practically our whole lives. We were practically sisters, even. I owed it to her to make sure she was okay.

I fell into an uneasy sleep, riddled with confusing thoughts and familiar faces.

_I looked into their apartment, watching as he offered his blood to her. I tried not to cringe as I saw her bite down on his neck. I tried to reason with myself. It was probably just difficult to find feeders. They weren't involved. _

_At least, I didn't think they were. Their files claimed that they had been best friends their whole lives. Ever since Kindergarten when Jesse Zeklos had been picking on her. I watched as his eyes closed, and she drank._

_Less than a minute later, she was done. She said something to him, and he nodded. She left the room, and he stumbled over to the window. He looked up, I assumed at the stars. He really was cute. I would be surprised if the Princess wasn't involved with him._

_Then, he happened to glance down into the street where I stood. He blinked and recoiled from the window as if I had stung him. I watched him scramble to pull on pants and shoes, and grab something. He ran out of the room._

_I touched my ear piece, telling the other guardians to fan out. They were going to try to escape._

_Two minutes later, they rushed out of the house. Her eyes were wide and frightened, while he looked like a fierce guardian. However, I knew that he would not be prepared to face down a Strigoi. _

_They ran blocks away, and I let them run. I let them run until they were a few feet away from the car that had been identified as their roommate's. And then, I stepped out in front of them. Something in his face hardened even more than before, and he sprung into action._

I woke up, my heart pounding in anticipation. I tried to calm it down, glancing at the glowing digital clock on my night stand. It was two o'clock in the afternoon. It didn't feel like afternoon, though. It looked dark outside. It looked like dusk was falling. I had to remind myself that I wasn't in the human world anymore, but back with the Moroi. Back with my people.

And we slept in the daytime. It had been strange, really. I hadn't minded being in the sun too much when we were gone. It had affected Lissa much worse than it had me.

Perhaps it had been because my skin was darker than hers. Not by much, of course. But enough to tell that I was almost an entirely different race.

My skin was a lot darker than the average Moroi. While theirs was a porcelain white, mine was more of a creamy beige.

I got up, bothered by my dream.

What did it mean?

Why was I dreaming of Lissa and Dimitri?

I had barely known him a day, and I was dreaming of him being fed on by my best friend.

_Like he was me and I was him._

How strange.

I tried to shake the visions off. I tried to go back to sleep.

I couldn't. I knew I might regret this, but I pulled on a sweat shirt and covered as much skin as possible.

I was going out, at night. Guardians would probably be patrolling, so I needed to be careful.

Hopefully, they wouldn't be on the look out for any Moroi. After all, what sensible Moroi would be out in the sun?

Nobody ever said I was sensible.

I slipped out of my room, certain that Lissa and I weren't sharing a room. Was she alone, or was she with someone else?

I decided to not think about Lissa for once. It was strange not to do so, since I was tied to her. It was a nice break.

I looked around for the dorm matron. She was asleep.

Clearly they had not trained her properly to deal with Rose Hathaway.

I didn't plan on teaching her a lesson, either. I liked the opportunities this afforded me.

I ran down the stairs, careful not to be too loud.

I glanced around the lobby. The matron there was reading a magazine. I grinned.

I waited until her back was turned before sneaking out the door and into the afternoon sunlight.

It was glorious.

I knew I needed to be careful about how much sun I got, but its warmth felt so good on my face.

I heard footsteps coming and stopped basking immediately. I snuck into a little hidey-hole that I had discovered when Lissa and I had first moved onto the upper campus.

I had no idea how many people knew about it, but I assumed it was a well-kept secret.

I saw that it had indeed been a guardian passing by me.

A very tall guardian. Dimitri.

I didn't know a lot of them, but I was certain none of them were neither as tall, nor as handsome as he.

What was wrong with me?

He was old!

I shifted my weight and heard a twig snap under my foot.

I cursed.

Next thing I knew, Dimitri had found my spot. He also had a stake in his hand.

Until he realized that I was not a Strigoi, but indeed a Moroi.

"Rose?" he asked.

"Hi, Dimitri," I said.

"What are you doing out past curfew?" he asked me.

"I couldn't sleep," I explained.

"So you just decided to go outside in the sunlight?"

I nodded.

"That's not very smart."

I frowned at him. "It could hurt you," he said.

"Not as much as it hurts Lissa. Besides, I already miss it."

He narrowed his eyes. "Why would you miss the sun?"

"It's warm," I said. "I don't like living in the darkness all the time. It seems as if I was born into the wrong species."

He nodded acceptingly. "Okay, but it's still breaking the rules. You've only been here less than a day, and you've violated your probation."

I pressed my lips together, irritated with him. "I know that! I just couldn't sleep. I wanted to get some fresh air."

"How about this?" he asked.

I raised my eyebrows, waiting for his proposal.

"I won't tell Headmistress Kirova you were out as long as you agree not to break anymore rules."

I nodded, too excited to be off the hook.

"Get back to bed, Rose," he told me.

I stood there, frozen.

I didn't want to go back to bed.

"Rose," he said warningly.

"Alright. Good night, Comrade," I said.

"Good night, Rose."

I left, trying not to look back at him. I would have a full day tomorrow. I was tired. But I didn't want anymore weird dreams.

I looked into the lobby. The dorm matron wasn't even there anymore. Some sort of security!

I walked up to my room and turned off the light. I pulled the covers over my head, concentrating on slowing my heart beat and un-tensing my muscles. I finally fell asleep, only to wake up to my alarm a few hours later.

I sighed as I woke up. The alarm clock said it was seven in the morning. I could see the faint rays of the sun through my window and picked out an outfit that also had to be from the lost and found.

I really hoped my clothes would be here soon.

By the time I got out of my dorm and into the commons, it was dark out.

My cheeks were a little red from the sun. So much for assuring Dimitri that I could handle it.

I decided to go the feeders, instead of eating breakfast.

When I got in there, I saw Christian Ozera was there.

"Hey," I said to him. He looked up from his feeder. "Can you not creep on Lissa so much?"

His cheeks turned the slightest bit red.

"Yeah, she told me."

That was a lie. I hadn't been able to talk to Lissa since the day before.

His eyebrows furrowed in anger and I smiled. "Well, time for breakfast!"

I pranced off. I wasn't actually that happy, in fact, I was livid that she had even considered hanging with him for so long. We weren't going to stay here forever, but she needed to have as easy a time as possible while we were still here. I couldn't let her get depressed again. Not on my watch.

Once I was done with my "victim", I went to the commons for breakfast. I smelled French toast and started salivating immediately.

I hadn't had French toast in so long. I wasn't a very good cook; I could burn water. Lissa could cook if she really wanted to, but she wasn't a huge fan of it.

I'd only ever had it when we'd managed to scrap enough money to go out to eat.

I filled up my plate and looked around for Lissa. I found her sitting at the same table as we had sat at yesterday for lunch.

That was the first time I realized that I had fallen asleep before dinner.

No wonder I was so hungry.

I went and sat next to her. "Hi, Liss," I smiled.

She smiled at me angelically.

"I forgot to ask, where's your room?"

"I'm rooming with Natalie, actually," she said.

My jaw dropped. "They put you with Natalie and not me?"

"She requested it, Rose."

I narrowed my eyes. Why would Natalie do that? Lissa was _my_ friend_._

"Leave it, Rose," she reasoned. "And don't you go to the feeder's in the morning?" she frowned, looking at my plate.

I rolled my eyes at the obvious change of subject. I decided I'd let it go, this time.

"Yeah, but I'm still so hungry."

She made a disgusted face, just as she had at lunch the day before.

"My life, my choices," I said.

She sighed. I could feel her annoyance, and realized I was being a bit of a hypocrite. I didn't let Lissa make her own decisions very often. But I did know what was best, most of the time.

I owed Lissa my life. I would stop at nothing to make sure she was safe.


	3. Chapter 3

I suffered through all my classes, once again. The only bright side was practicing my magic, and even that was slightly dimmed. It wasn't just because Christian was in there, but also because it was dead boring.

I met Dimitri immediately after school, excited to tell him about what I had decided I wanted to do for the day.

"You look happy," he commented as we fell into step. Admittedly, I had to take longer steps to match his pace.

"I figured out what I want to do today, Comrade," I said.

He raised an eyebrow. Man, I was so jealous. I had never managed to raise just one.

"I want to practice my magic some more!"

He frowned. "But Rose, I can't help you with your magic. I know next to nothing about it."

"I just wanted to be able to practice it outside of school. I want to get better at it. Better than my classmates," I told him.

He frowned but agreed. "Should I keep a fire extinguisher nearby?"

I gasped. "Did Dimitri Belikov just make a joke?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow again. "It happens from time to time. Where do you want to practice?"

"What would be safe from prying eyes?"

He looked thoughtful. "Probably the gym," he said.

"Won't dhampir's be in there?"

He shook his head. "They only occupy it during the day."

I nodded and began to follow him to the gym. I had never been in there before; I had never had a reason.

"Nothing in here is flammable, right?" I asked. I didn't want to set the gym ablaze. That would ruin all my plans, and out I would be. Without Lissa.

"No," he smiled. He had a nice smile.

I couldn't help but smile in return.

"So what were you planning to do, exactly?" he asked.

"Just practicing certain spells. Keeping the flame alive longer, making it stronger and larger, being able to aim it at stuff."

He nodded once again. "Sorry I can't help you more, Rose."

"It's not your fault, Dimitri," I said as I concentrated on making a flame appear in my hand. It wasn't as easy as it once would have been.

"You know," I said. "I've been thinking. It's not proper for Moroi to use magic offensively, is it?"

His eyes narrowed as if wondering where our conversation was going.

"But how am I supposed to protect myself?" I asked.

If possible, his eyes narrowed even more. "I will protect you, Rose," he said.

Okay, so I shouldn't have used that line of logic. Of course my guardian would be indignant.

"Okay, but say you've got some time off- don't give me that look! You need personal time too! Say you've got some time off, and I'm all alone. How am I supposed to protect myself?"

He opened his mouth and closed it. "I wouldn't let anyone come near you," he said. There was a fire in his eyes, but I couldn't figure out why. Maybe it was a guardian thing.

"Okay, how about this?" I tried to reason. "I don't want to be as helpless as the rest of the Moroi. I don't want to be docile. I don't want to be vapid and scared of my own shadow. I want to fight alongside guardians and dhampirs in general."

He smiled, something like pride in his eyes.

"I can train you, if you want," he said. "But you have to be willing to work. You won't be treated as a Moroi anymore. I'll treat you as if you're a dhampir."

I grinned. "Good."

**TRSTRSTRS**

The next day after school , I met Dimitri at the gym.

Dimitri looked at my clothing appraisingly. I looked down at my outfit, wondering if there was anything wrong with it.

I was wearing a pair of running shorts and a tank top. What could possibly be wrong with it? Unless he was checking me out, which I highly doubted. I was used to boys checking me out, but if it was Dimitri… It would be different. I already looked up to him so much.

Not that it changed anything about my plan. I still planned to break Lissa out. She needed it. She was already having trouble functioning.

"See something you like, Comrade?" I asked to cover up my discomfort.

He shook his head. "Come on Rose, let's get to work."

He held the door to the gym open and I walked past him, not bothering to say thank you.

He was lucky I even let him hold the door for me. Most guys would have been set on fire. Well, metaphorically. My magical strength right now was at a bit of a weak point. Also, I could be imprisoned for practicing offensive magic. NO thank you.

The gym was different than I had expected it to be. Half of it was covered in mats while the other half had practice dummies and stakes.

I looked up at Dimitri. "Where are all the machines?"

"They're in the weight room," he answered.

"There's a weight room?" I asked.

His lips tugged up at the corner. "Yes, though usually only dhampirs use it."

"So what are we going to do first?" I asked.

"Run," he said.

"Running? That's it?"

"Running is the basis of stamina and strength, Rose," he explained.

I rolled my eyes. "Is this some sort of Zen life lesson?"

He just chuckled a little. "We will be stretching first, of course."

I wasn't a fan of running and I wasn't a fan of stretching either. Couldn't we get to more kung-fu things?

He showed me a few stretches. I found that I was sort of flexible.

When we were done stretching, he looked at me and motioned for us to walk back outside. We got to the track and he said, "Eight laps."

"Eight laps?" I asked, shocked.

"It's only two miles, Rose."

"That's a lot!" I told him.

He just shook his head. "I'll run with you."

**TRSTRSTRSTRS**

Halfway through the second lap, I was out of breath. By the third, my muscles were cramping. By the fourth, I was exhausted.

"Can we stop soon, Comrade?" I panted, barely able to speak.

"We're halfway done, Rose," he said. "You can keep going."

"But I can barely breathe," I wheezed.

"You're the one who wanted to do this," he reminded me. "If you're as tired as you say, just take the next lap slower, and try to even out your breathing."

I took his advice as we neared the next straight on the track. I allowed myself to slow to a jog. It wasn't even really a jog, however; it was more of a walk in running motion.

"In through your nose, out through your mouth," Dimitri told me.

He wasn't tired at all. I appreciated that he was running with me, even though I felt like a slug.

How did he do it? "How do you do it?" I puffed.

"Do what?" he asked.

"Run so well?"

His eyebrows lifted up in surprise. "It's a lot of technique, as well as practice," he explained.

I didn't say another word as we ran for three more laps.

Once we were done, I collapsed on the turf field next to the track.

"Rose, do you need water?" Dimitri asked.

I could only nod, too out of breath to speak.

I could barely even take a drink, I was so out of breath.

"Arms over your head, Rose," Dimitri suggested. "It'll open up your ribs and lungs."

I nodded, and felt it become easier to breathe the longer I held my arms above my head.

"We still have half an hour," he told me. "What do you want to do?"

I didn't have any ideas.

"I don't know. What do you want to do, Comrade?" I asked.

He looked mildly surprised. "Does no one ever ask you what you want?"

He shook his head carefully. "It's not my job to think about what I want," he explained.

I frowned in confusion. "Are you saying you don't like being my guardian?" I finally asked.

"No," he corrected quickly. "It's just that guardians basically give up their lives when they receive their promise marks."

I thought about it. Guardians were told who they were to guard, where their charges were going, where they would live. How would I feel about living like that? I would hate it. I hated being caged in.

"Well, what would you like to do with the rest of our hour, Dimitri?"

He considered my question. "How about we run some more?"

"No!" I shouted, before I saw the smirk on his face and the look in his eyes. "Oh, good one," I told him.

He smiled, and my heart fluttered. I wanted to make him smile more often.

"What do you really want to do?"

Dimitri smiled once again, taking my breath away. What was wrong with me?

"Why don't we just work on your homework?"

I made a face, all thoughts of his beauty gone from my mind. "Really?"

"I think it will really help your future to focus on your grades, too," he told me.

"But what about what you want to do?" I asked petulantly.

He chuckled. "I want to help you, Rose. I'm your guardian."

I hmphed, but followed him to the library. I didn't bother to tell him how gross and smelly I probably was, and how it would probably ruin my reputation to go gallivanting across campus in this state.

Instead, I just pulled my Russian textbook out of my backpack and got to work on my homework, asking Dimitri questions every once in a while when I got stuck, or to check if I was right.

It only took me fifteen minutes to finish that, so I started working on my Pre-Calculus homework. "Do you know anything about Pre-Calc, Comrade?" I asked.

He arched one eyebrow, and I felt jealous. "What are you studying at the moment?"

"Inverse functions."

He helped me with the problems I needed help on, which was basically all of them.

"Are you good at everything, Comrade?" I smiled.

The smile slipped off my face when I saw the haunted look that had taken over his eyes.

"No, not everything," he said.

"What's wrong?" I asked him. I could tell, somehow, that whatever it was had been bothering him for a while.

"Nothing," he shook his head, a strand of hair falling out of his hair-tie and into his face. I fought the urge to brush it behind his ear.

"You can talk to me about it, if you want," I prodded.

He shook his head again, and then placed a mask back on his face. His guardian mask. He had tucked whatever had been plaguing his conscience into the back of his mind.

"I'm sorry about whatever it is," I told him.

**TRSTRSTRS**

That night I tried to devise a plan for the escape I knew Lissa desperately needed.

I came up blank, though.

Maybe it was because really, I didn't want to leave. I knew Lissa was happy to be back, too. I wanted to stay, where it was easier to find feeders. I wanted to stay where it was easier to be the real me. Well, sort of. Closer, anyways.

I wondered what Lissa was doing. As if I had summoned her, I felt some sneakiness coming from her.

Was she going to see Christian again?

I tried to find a way into her mind. Finally, after a little digging, I was in.

Lissa was sitting in the church attic, at the window seat.

She and Christian were facing each other, talking. She flipped her hair, and I noticed that the gesture was distinctly flirty.

I needed to stop their budding romance before our reputations got ruined.

I had worked so hard to save them for the past few days.

What I couldn't figure out was why I cared so much when I planned to run away.

**TRSTRSTRS**

Every afternoon after school, I continued to run and work out with Dimitri. I was fine with that, but I was bored in all my off time.

In English one day, Jesse Zeklos approached me.

"Hey Rose," he said. "Do you think you can slip the leash tonight? Mark's got some weed and we're hanging out in the woods."

"I don't know," I hesitated. "It sounds like fun, but I don't think I can get away from my Russian jailer."

"Can't you at least try?" he asked.

"I'm confined to the dorms," I said. I really didn't want to disappoint Dimitri if he found out.

"How about I meet you in the dorms instead?" he asked. "We can have our own party."

I smiled, up for a little fun. I had been itching to find out how good Jesse actually was at kissing. "Sure," I said. "Six good for you?"

He smiled at me, flashing his fangs a little. "Yep. See you then!"

The bell rang and he went to sit in his desk.

After lunch, I chastised Lissa for hanging out with Christian again.

"You were in my head?" she asked. "For that long?"

"It's not my fault!" I defended. "You're the one who dragged me there. Anyways, don't get too attached."

"Why not?" she asked.

"Because I'm going to get you out," I explained.

Her face showed shock, and then she smiled. "You would, too, wouldn't you?"

"Yes," I said. "I don't know how yet… maybe if I could get a hold of some C4, or maybe if you compelled someone…"

She bit her lip nervously. "I think we should stay, Rose."

"What?" I asked. It wasn't a very eloquent response, but whatever.

"I think we should stay."

"But Liss, this place drove you crazy last time."

"But I see how you are, Rose. You missed it here. I see how happy you are to be back."

She was right. I _had _missed it. She turned her green eyes on me, pleading.

I buckled. "Oh, alright," I said. She smiled brilliantly. I couldn't help but smile back.

"Great, now, you need to go off and hang out with Guardian Belikov for your required hour!" She smacked my bottom, shooing me towards the gym.

I waved to her, excited to see Dimitri.

"Hey, Comrade!" I said cheerfully as I entered the gym.

"Hello, Rose," he answered bemusedly. "Nine laps!"

He pointed towards the track. I nodded, pulling my hair up into a ponytail. I walked into the ever lightening night. I stretched my hamstrings on the fence next to the track, and then moved on to my quadriceps and calves.

Dimitri was walking towards me. "Dimitri, can you help me stretch my back?" I asked.

My back pained every time I ran.

"Which part?" he asked.

"My lower back," I looked up at him, finishing rolling my ankles.

"Okay, kneel down," he ordered. I complied, wondering how this would help.

"Lean forward until your chest touches your quadriceps," he told me. I did as I was told, and continued to list orders. "Now, put your hands flat in front of you."

When I did so, he placed one hand on my upper back and one on my lower back. I tensed, electricity running through my veins wherever he touched. What was wrong with me?

He pressed a light amount of pressure on my lower back, all the while pushing my upper back forward.

I moaned, "That feels so good," I told him.

He chuckled. "I would imagine, with how tense your back was at the beginning of the stretch."

I held back another moan. "And that was thirty seconds," he said. "Time to go run."

I sighed. I really hated running laps. I got so bored. However, if it got Dimitri to spar with me, I was up for it!

When I was finished with my laps, I did all the stretches again, including the back stretch with Dimitri.

"Thanks, Dimitri," I smiled at him.

"For what?" he asked, confused. "For getting me in shape," I said.

He nodded. I left the gym and went to clean up for my meeting with Jesse.

**TRSTRSTRS**

I took a shower, blew dry my long brown locks, and put on a fresh outfit.

I saw Jesse in the kitchens. I walked past him and whispered, "I'll meet you in the abandoned second floor lounge," I told him.

It was the only lounge that was unused in the Moroi dorms. I had heard it was closed down because of the kitchen it housed. Students apparently had frequently snuck alcohol and drugs in through that kitchen. I didn't really care. It wasn't like the lock was hard to pick.

The sun would come up soon, I noticed. The lounge had a giant bay window that wasn't as tinted as I was used to. The colors of the sunrise were beautiful.

I pulled a bobby pin from my hair and unlocked the door.

I sat down carelessly on the couch. It was a hideous eggplant color.

A few minutes later Jesse entered the lounge.

"Hey," he smiled, flashing his fangs.

I smiled back, flashing my own at him.

He didn't waste any time. As soon as he sat down on the couch, he placed his hand on my thigh. He began to kiss my neck, and smiled as his teeth scraped against my skin. That was so sexy.

I pulled him away from my neck and began to kiss his lips. He undid a button on my blouse, while I moved onto his neck. I scraped my fangs against his carotid artery. He moaned sensually. I smiled and nibbled, though not enough to break the skin.

Soon, my shirt and bra were off.

I didn't mind. He placed his hand on my breast, and began to move his mouth to suck on my nipple. "I'm not having sex," I told him.

"Okay," he said, refocusing on my breast.

I buried my hands in his hair, tugging gently on the soft strands.

The door burst open. We sprang apart. My eyes widened when I saw that it was Dimitri who had barged in on us.

I had the urge to cover up, but decided against it.

Dimitri stormed over, and grabbed Jesse by the shirt. "What's your name?"

"J-jesse Zeklos, s-sir!" he stuttered out.

"Mr. Zeklos, are you aware of the rules on male-female interactions at St. Vladimir's?"

"Yes, s-s-sir," Jesse whimpered.

He lost any cool points.

"Good, now Mr. Zeklos, if I find you touching my charge like this again, I _will_ deal with you! Understand?" His Russian accent was even more pronounced than usual. Seeing this side of Dimitri was hot.

"Now, go!"

Jesse didn't need told twice.

Dimitri and I stood there staring at each other for a few moments. I felt my body heating up. I saw how tense he was, how powerful he could be. I wondered how all that maleness and power could translate into, well, sex.

I realized that his gaze was doing much more to me than Jesse's kisses had done to me.

Mirroring my words from a week ago, I said, "Like what you see?"

"Get dressed," he said gruffly. I immediately regretted shattering the moment. Now all I wanted were Dimitri's lips on mine. I wanted his hands on my body, buried in my hair, teasing my skin…

I broke out of my haze and went in search for my bra. I found it next to Dimitri's feet, and I didn't know how to ask him if he could give it to me.

"Um, Dimitri, can you throw me my bra?"

He glanced at me, at my bra, then at my exposed chest.

He muttered something in Russian and bent down gracefully to pick it up. It looked so small in his large palms. I blushed. _Dimitri was handling my bra. _Dimitri was touching my bra. Dimitri was touching the piece of material that had been touching my breasts, and soon would be again. He was touching my lacy, sheer, bra.

I blushed again. He seemed to be struggling with something as he threw it to me. I regretfully had to let go of covering my chest as I placed the offending material on my body.

I looked at Dimitri, trying to gauge his reaction, as I struggled with the clasp around my back. I contemplated asking him for help, but decided against it.

I finally got the clasp and went in search of my shirt.

The tension in the room was crackling by the time I finally found it and buttoned it up.

"How did you find us?" I finally asked.

"A janitor saw it and reported it," he said.

A janitor? I hadn't seen any janitors. I shrugged the thought off and wondered why Dimitri cared so much.

"Why'd they report it to you?" I asked him.

"Because I am your sanctioned guardian," his voice was still angry. "You make yourself look cheap!" he finally exploded.

I backed up from him, his voice reverberating through the room.

"What's wrong with having fun?" I asked him, angry now.

"You're making a reputation for yourself. I've heard the stories about you," he said this accusingly. "This will not only reflect on you, but also on your best friend and family," he told me. "You know how cruel everyone can be."

"But the rumors aren't even true!" I yelled. "I'm a virgin! I haven't even kissed as many boys as everyone says!"

"I'm sorry, Rose," he said. He came closer, and I looked up into his eyes. They were still stormy. There was a wrinkle between his eyebrows as he frowned.

"What's wrong with having a little fun?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said, "if you were a normal Moroi or human. Your life is very high-profile, however. Your mother is an important figure at court. Your best friend is the last Dragomir princess. The world is watching what you do."

I closed the distance in between us and buried my head in his chest. He stiffened for a moment before placing his arms around my torso. I felt as if I belonged in his arms. The same wonderful electricity flowed through his arms into my body, and I listened to his heart.

It was beating madly, thrumming, like a bird.

I wasn't crying, but that didn't mean that I didn't want to.

I held him tighter and closer to me, relishing in his embrace.

It was then that I realized that I was crushing on my guardian.

I had a crush on a dhampir. I had a crush on my much older, dhampir guardian.

I stifled my gasp and pulled away. I pulled myself together, and smiled wearily up at him.

"Rose, if you can show me how serious you are about things, I can start to seriously train you," he said gently.

My eyes widened. "Really?" I asked.

"Yes," he answered. "But it will be a lot of work. You will be tired a lot, and will have a lot less free time."

Who needed free-time? It wasn't like I had any, anyway.

"I'll do it!" I told him.

"Meet me in the gym at six tomorrow morning," he said, taking one final glance at me. With that, he left the room, his duster billowing behind him.

Man, he was hot.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, I awoke to the annoying sound of my alarm clock.

I groaned in protest, hitting the thing that was causing me to lose sleep.

I looked at the clock. It was five-thirty. "Shoot me," I moaned out.

I got up, staggering towards my dresser. I grabbed my running shorts and a tank top. I supposed it might be hot when I got outside.

Why, oh why had I agreed to Dimitri's offer? It was unnatural to be awake while the sun is still up. It was shining brightly through the window, taunting me.

When I got outside, I discovered that it wasn't hot at all. It was actually rather cold. Autumn had hit St. Vladimir's sometime while I had been asleep.

I opened the gym doors to find Dimitri sprawled out on the floor, reading a Western novel. "Is that Louis L'Amour?" I asked. "And is that _Prince?"_ I was incredulous.

He nodded.

"Why are you listening to this?" I asked. I was ashamed that I even knew _When Doves Cry, _but a roommate of ours had been a huge fan of Prince.

"Because that is what I like," he stated calmly.

"Look, I know this is a hit in Eastern Europe right now, but-"

"Siberia isn't an arctic wasteland, Rose," he told me.

"Are you sure?" I tried to raise an eyebrow, but once again failed.

"I lived there until two years ago, Rose," he said exasperatedly.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically.

He smiled at me, causing my heart to shudder.

"Since the sun is out, I won't be having your run laps. Instead, we're going to focus on boxing," he told me.

"Really?" This was the moment I had been waiting for!

"Yes," he said, clearly amused.

For the next hour, he taught me how to hold my fists when I punched. He taught me the correct movements and had me practicing on the punching bags.

I was lucky that I naturally had such good form. Maybe I was meant to be a fighter.

Dimitri also lectured me about why not to hit with certain parts of my hand, and not to hit someone unless sparring or in danger.

I sighed. He expected so little of me. Actually, he knew me quite well. I had thought about teaching Mia a lesson, in all honesty.

I rushed out of the gym, in a hurry to take a shower and get to breakfast.

I didn't have time to visit the feeder's for breakfast this morning, so when I got to the commons I piled on heaps of food on my plate.

"Jeez, Rose," Lissa smiled at me. "You sure are hungry today!"

I smiled back at her, wishing I could tell her about my training with Dimitri. However, I knew that I couldn't. Dimitri could get in trouble for teaching me how to fight. I would hate for him to lose his job, just because of me. I would hate to never see him again.

We parted ways for first period. I was finally starting to get the hang of Russian, but knew it was really only because Dimitri had been tutoring me. It helped having someone who knew everything about the language. I wanted to impress Dimitri with my Russian knowledge. I didn't know how that could happen when I was only in Russian I, though.

I paid rapt attention, even taking notes. I highlighted important points and starred things that I was confused about. I decided I'd ask Dimitri about those later, though I didn't know if he'd want to spend another extra hour after school with me. Surely he had a life, too.

My magic was getting better, I noticed, when I was practicing in fourth period. My flames were just as bright and vibrant as Christian Ozera's, not that I was comparing anything of mine to his. I could finally hold the flame in my hand for ten minutes, without breaking a sweat. I could light candles on fire from across the room. I was feeling pretty impressed with myself.

I wondered if getting in shape had some correlation to my magic working better. I hadn't fed since the morning before, but my flames were more vibrant than ever.

Things were finally falling into place.

I visited the feeder's at lunch with Lissa. I requested Alice again, while Lissa was just led to a random feeder.

"You haven't been protecting the Princess, Rose," Alice told me after I said hello.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

I mean, sure, I hadn't been spending every waking moment worrying about getting her out of St. Vladimir's, but things were better than ever. Lissa didn't feel as if somebody was watching her, there were no dark whisperings in her ear about people. Things were under control.

"You've left the Princess unprotected," she told me. I frowned, tired of trying to work out Alice's puzzles. I sidled up to her and bit into her neck. I fed until I knew it was time to stop, an internal alarm going off. I was satisfied, and it seemed Alice was, as well.

"Bye Alice," I told her, waving.

"Bye, Rose," she said woozily.

I walked out of her room, feeling a bit more alive than I had before.

I waited for Lissa in the lobby. We went to lunch, and she grabbed a yogurt.

I didn't even grab as much as I usually did. Instead, I just grabbed a sandwich and a chocolate milk.

Lissa gave me a strange look, wondering why I wasn't pigging out.

I just felt happy today.

Natalie and her friends just smiled, not noticing anything different about my eating habits. They were pretty oblivious to everything, really.

"So what are you doing after school today, Liss?" I asked.

"Well, after I finish my homework, Natalie and I were going to watch a movie with Erin."

At least she was playing it safe. Alice's chastisement came back to my mind, and I wondered if St. Vladimir's _would _slowly drive Lissa crazy.

"That's cool, what are you going to watch?"

She looked at Natalie and Erin, wondering why she hadn't even bothered to ask. Suddenly, I felt as if Lissa was slipping away from me. She was becoming closer to Natalie and Erin. They hung out after school. She had agreed to watch a movie with them, not even questioning what they would be watching.

"Titanic," Natalie answered, smiling.

Titanic was Lissa's favorite movie. She claimed that she loved how romantic it was. I just thought it was depressing. And if she really loved him, she would have found a way to let him on that piece of wood. Why didn't he just swim around so they could balance the weight out?

Lissa smiled a large, brilliant smile.

I was envious of her beauty. She looked so innocent, so angelic. She was tall and thin, the perfect Moroi body type.

I wished I could look like her. I looked more like a dhampir, to be honest.

While she was angelic, I was the opposite. If she was the angel on one shoulder, I was the devil on the other. Or at least, I had been just mere weeks ago.

After Moroi Culture, Lissa and I walked to Slavic Art together.

I finally decided to tell her about Jesse and the lounge, and my sudden realization about Dimitri.

I passed her a note. _So, J and I met up in the abandoned lounge last night._

_What?! _she asked. _What happened?_

_We hooked up _

_How was it? _

_It was good. _

_But you guys aren't together?_

_Nothing really happened. Dimitri showed up and bitched Jesse out. _

"Excuse me, Mr. Nagy, I can't concentrate on the question with Lissa and Rose passing notes over there!" Mia was attempting to worm her way out of a question she obviously didn't know the answer to.

The class shuffled in anticipation. Mr. Nagy was infamous for his note reading.

He read the note to the class.

"Are we to assume that the usage of 'hook up' is the more carnal use?" he asked us.

"Yes sir, Mr. Nagy," I said.

The class laughed.

After class, Jesse came up to me, nearly sweating. "Listen, Belikov knows I wasn't involved in this, right?" he asked.

I looked at him, my eyes narrowed. "Yeah, yeah. I won't tell my guardian."

He nodded and left. "You know, Jesse just doesn't seem that hot anymore," I told Lissa.

She giggled. We walked back to the dorm together so I could change into my running shorts and tennis shoes. I walked her to her room, telling her, "Have fun watching Titanic!"

She waved and said, "Oh, I will!"

I hurried to the gym, aware that I was late.

I got to the gym, shouting, "Sorry I'm late, Comrade!"

He looked up from the same western he had been reading this morning. "You'll be running an extra four laps, Rose."

I gaped at him. "That will make it four miles!"

"That'll get you in shape," he said.

I began to stretch, counting to sixty instead of thirty. Dimitri looked at me, an expression between amusement and irritation on his face.

"I know what you're doing," he told me. I looked up from my Figure Four stretch, eyes wide. He knew that I was just trying to spend more time with him?

"You do?" I asked nervously.

"You're trying to stall running," he said, smiling.

I laughed, relieved. "Oh, you're so right, Comrade!"

He gave me an odd look. "If it's bothering you that much, I'll run with you again."

"Do you run every day, Dimitri?" I asked as he helped me stretch my back again.

He pressed a little harder. "Yes, before you arrive, I usually run about five miles. Sometimes I go for six."

I couldn't help but look up at him in astonishment. This man had to be a machine!

He smiled at my expression, and my heart skipped a few beats. I prayed that he hadn't felt my traitorous heart.

"Time to run, Rose."

I grimaced, and felt the loss of his heat on my back.

He held out a hand to help me up. I took it, just wanting more contact with him.

"Let's go," he said, nodding towards the doors that led to the track.

We walked out, and I realized that he was still holding my hand. It was so warm and I could feel the electricity coursing from his veins into mine. His hand was so big compared to mine, but it still seemed to hold it perfectly.

He must have realized that he was still touching me, because he subtly pulled it away from mine.

We began to run. It was pretty easy going until I hit the twelfth lap, which was when my muscles began to ache. Soon, my lungs were huffing and puffing again. I finished my sixteenth lap, collapsing right after the finish line.

I smiled up at Dimitri, who was barely out of breath. He looked so gorgeous with the moon shining behind him.

"Your time was about the same average," he told me. "Eight minutes per mile. Not bad at all, Rose."

He helped me up once again, but let go of my hand right away.

"Hey, Dimitri?" I asked.

"Yes?" he looked at me expectantly.

"Can you help me with some school stuff after I shower?"

He looked at me appraisingly, and for a moment I doubted whether he would do it.

"I mean, I know you probably have a life, and I know that I'm taking up more of it than usual from now on, but I had some questions, and I really want to do well," I explained. "I'll understand if you don't want to do it."

He smiled at me, one of those half-smiles that I always hoped would turn into a true one. "Of course I'll help you, Rose," he told me. "I don't mind at all. Do you want to meet in fifteen minutes at the library?"

I smiled, excited that he would help after all. "Yeah, that works, Comrade. Thank you, so much!" Thinking, I tacked on a last minute, "Spasibo!"

He smiled at me then, a true, full-blown smile. I smiled in response, and waved as I walked towards my dorm room.

I showered, did my hair, and got dressed. I looked over myself in the mirror, wondering how Dimitri would feel about my outfit. It was simple, even kind of sloppy compared to what I had worn in the days before we had left St. Vladimir's.

I was wearing a light grey Portland State sweatshirt and pair of high-waist light blue jeans. I was wearing a pair of white Keds, and my hair was up in a messy bun. I really didn't feel like dressing too fancily when I was just going to the library for a while. Even if I was meeting Dimitri, it wasn't like it was a date. It wasn't like I had a chance with him.

Even so, as I walked across campus, I still found myself wondering whether he'd find me attractive in this outfit.

I entered the library and immediately began to search for Dimitri. I found him at our usual secluded table. "Privet, Comrade!"

He looked up from his western, immediately stowing it away in the pocket of his duster. "Privet, Rose," he said.

I grinned at him, happy to just be in his presence. I tried to squish the emotion down, and instead I pulled out my notes from my backpack.

"So, I was confused about…"

**TRSTRSTRSTRS**

After I finished studying with Dimitri, I realized that it was passed dinner time. "I am so sorry!" I said. I hadn't meant to starve him. I had often heard that dhampirs needed lots of food because they were always so active, and here I had kept him from his meal. "I didn't realize it was so late!"

"It's alright," he said.

"Are you sure? Are you hungry? I know I am. Maybe we could try to sneak into the kitchen for food?"

"Calm down, Rose. I'll be okay. If anything, I should be apologizing. It's almost curfew-"

I didn't get to hear the rest of what he had to say, because I was pulled into Lissa's head. She was upset. All she could see was red. She was crying.

I forced myself out of her head after only a few seconds, and Dimitri was looking at me worriedly. "Was it Lissa?" he asked.

I nodded, and took off running. Despite the fact that I had run a mini-marathon only a few hours earlier and hadn't eaten since lunch, I ran as fast and as surely as possible. I heard Dimitri's light footsteps behind me. I ran all the way to the Moroi dorms, to Lissa and Natalie's room, and didn't bother to knock on the door.

I barged in, immediately enveloping Lissa in my arms. "Shh, it's okay," I told her, cradling her to my chest.

I rubbed circles on her back and looked up to survey what had happened.

There was blood everywhere on her bed. It was gummy and starting to congeal. I grimaced, and looked to the source of all the blood. A dead fox, its neck slit, a hole in its stomach.

The wound in its neck looked jelly and white, the blood stopped running and a little crusted on the flap of the skin. It was the most disgusting thing I had ever seen. Not only that, but it was on Lissa's bed. My sister's bed.

"It's okay," I said, rubbing her back once more. I looked up at Dimitri, wondering what he would do.

"Dimitri?" I asked.

"I'll call Headmistress Kirova immediately," he told me.

He pulled out a silver cell phone and walked out of the room to place the call. Within minutes, the room was swarming with teachers and dorm matrons. Even some students had gathered around to see the spectacle.

I glared at the students, trying to tell them to back off. None of them listened, of course. They were all much too curious about what was happening to the last of the Dragomirs.

"Princess, can you tell us your account of this?" Kirova asked.

Lissa looked up from my arms, her eyes still teary.

"I was getting back from dinner when I walked in, and there it was! On my bed…"

She couldn't say anymore, breaking into fresh sniffles.

I looked up at Dimitri once again, trying to scope out his reaction to all of this. I couldn't read his expression, as usual, really. His guardian mask was impenetrable.

Eventually, Kirova kicked me out of Lissa's room, ordering me back to my own two floors above. I gave Lissa one last hug and a kiss on the top of the head, before I left with Dimitri in tow.

"Do you know anything about this?" Dimitri asked me worriedly.

I looked up into his brown eyes, my own wide with worry. Did I know anything about it?

I wasn't even sure, except for Ms. Karp years before, and Lissa in the woods, healing the raven. I could hear Ms. Karp telling us not to tell anyone. _The more she uses it, the worse it'll get._

Lissa hadn't healed the fox tonight.

It had to be a coincidence. It just had to be.

"No," I said, shaking my head. "It's just a sick joke."

Dimitri nodded. "Are you alright?"

I felt shocked. I didn't think anyone would ask me how I felt. No one ever really did, not even Lissa. Usually I was the one who took care of her. No one ever cared enough to ask me.

Then, I thought about it. Was I alright? I honestly didn't know.

I wasn't as upset as Lissa, for sure. If anything, I was more upset for her than at the sight of the animal that had been slain on her bed.

"Yeah, I'm alright," I told him. "What about you?"

He smiled softly. "Yes, I'm alright."

And then, he came over and sat next to me on my bed.

"If you need to talk about it, I'm here," he assured me.

I bit my lip, fighting my urge to pull his hand into mine.

This crush was getting out of hand. The sad thing was, I had never felt this way before. I was beginning to realize that this was the hugest crush I had ever had. I worried for my future. Dimitri was ruining all other guys for me, including Jesse who I had deemed long ago as the sexiest boy at St. Vladimir's.

Finally, I couldn't resist the temptation. I scooted close to him, wrapping my arms around his torso. Oh, wow, he had a nice stomach.

I felt him stiffen from the contact at first. After a few seconds, he relented and wrapped his own arms around me. It felt so right, so natural, to be in his arms.

I allowed him to comfort me. He rubbed circles on my back, very similarly to what I had done with Lissa. I sighed into his chest, listening to his heart beat. I had heard heart beats before, of course. It was a common occurrence as a Moroi, if you got close enough to anyone. I had even heard his before. It was just as beautiful as before, thrumming wildly.

I reveled in it.

A few minutes later, I wasn't exactly sure how long, we both pulled away.

"Do you need to eat?" he asked me.

While I wasn't one to turn down food, and I _was _starving, I didn't know if I could handle any more time with Dimitri without falling over the edge.

But, I was really hungry. And I really, really, couldn't turn down food. "Where would we get said food?" I was curious.

"I have a mini-kitchen in my room," he explained. "I have a few basic things in there. What types of food do you like?"

"Well," I launched into a full fledged discussion. "I like donuts, and French toast, and Italian, and Chinese, and Japanese, but I hate salads and I hate sweetbread."

He chuckled. "What about Russian? I've got ingredients for kurnik."

I wrinkled my nose. "Kurnik?"

"I think you'll like it, if you keep an open mind. It's got bliny, chicken, rice, and mushrooms."

That did sound pretty decent, actually. "Alright," I said. "Let's go!"

He chuckled again, held his hand out to help me up. He let go as soon as he knew I was steady. I was saddened, but I knew that he didn't see me romantically. He was my guardian. He was seven years older than me. He probably still thought I was a child.

He led me across campus, nodding at various guardians as we neared the staff dorms. We walked up a flight of stairs all the way to the end of a hall before we reached his room. It was the most secluded room on the floor, and I wished my room was like that.

He pulled a key out of the pocket of his duster and unlocked the door.

He held the door open for me, and I entered under his arm. I looked around, examining his room.

It was pretty nice, much nicer than even the Moroi dorms. It was a large room, with a bed on one end and a kitchen and bathroom on the other. The kitchen was really more of a kitchenette. There was linoleum floor for a few feet, and a shag carpet in the rest of the room.

The bed was a satiny red comforter, and there was a small television that sat adjacent from it with an attached shelf that was full of VHS tapes.

Dimitri must have brought in the small coffee table that stood by the kitchenette, though it only had two chairs. Maybe he didn't entertain very often.

I heard Dimitri enter the room behind me. "You can make yourself at home while I cook," he told me.

I looked at him, smiling. I wanted to see how Dimitri lived. First, I went to the bathroom.

I snooped through his medicine cabinet, only finding a toothbrush, toothpaste, a razor, and aftershave. There were a few small hair-ties around the doorknob. He didn't have a shower curtain, but a door attached to the small shower.

I did my business, not bothering to pay attention to the toilet paper. After all, it was school issued.

I washed my hands and walked out. He was still cooking, so I decided to snoop around some more.

**TRSTRSTRS**

All of his VHS tapes were Westerns.

"Comrade, is that all you do? Fantasize about the 'Ol West?" I grinned, slightly exasperated but mostly just thought it was cute.

"Rose, not everybody is a huge fan of modern movies."

"I can tell, because you don't have any DVD's," I said.

I looked around some more, but found nothing interesting. I noticed he had a different book on his nightstand than the one he had been reading earlier in the day. I finally sat down on his bed, removing my shoes.

I buried my face in a pillow, wondering which side of the bed he slept on. It turned out, he slept on the right side. The pillow smelt just like his aftershave.

I breathed it in, feeling close to him. I liked it in here. I liked seeing how Dimitri lived.

I flopped onto my back, my hands beneath my head, as I turned to examine Dimitri. He looked so relaxed. It was the most relaxed I had ever seen him, to be honest.

I could see the muscles in his back as he flipped the whatever he was flipping. He was one hunk of man, to be sure. If only he could be mine.

I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the thoughts. I got under the covers, slightly cold.

"Is my bed comfortable?" asked Dimitri.

I gasped in surprise. He hadn't turned around since I had made myself at home, in his bed. Where he slept.

I blushed. He chuckled. "It's alright, you can stay there for a while," he assured me.

I smiled, snuggling into his bed further. Eventually, I fell asleep.

**TRSTRSTRS**

I awoke to Dimitri shaking me gently, telling me the food was ready.

"How long was I asleep, Comrade?" I asked, groaning.

"About thirty minutes," he told me. "No come on, I have your kurnik on your plate. What would you like to drink?"

"What do you have?"

"I have orange juice, water, mors, sbiten, hot chocolate, and tea."

"Um, considering I don't know what a few of those are, I'll take the hot chocolate!"

He grinned at me and turned around. I watched him as he boiled water in a tea kettle and pulled two packets of hot chocolate out.

"Are you drinking hot chocolate, too?" I asked.

"No, I'll be having sbiten," he said.

"Then why are there two?"

"That's the best way to have hot chocolate," he told me. "Just one packet isn't sweet enough."

I giggled, liking his logic. Really, I could never get enough chocolate.

"So what's, uh, spit, uh-"

"Sbiten," he corrected. "It's a warm drink with honey, spices, fruit juices, and water," he explained. "I can let you taste some after the water boils."

"That would be nice, thanks."

The tea kettle started to whistle, and he pulled it off the burner. He immediately turned it off and began to pour the water into two cups. He pulled a mix of brown stuff from the fridge, and I figured it was the sbiten.

He mixed the two concoctions (though not together), and handed me his own cup. I took a sip cautiously. "It's alright," I told him. And it was. It wasn't the best drink in the world.

He nodded, taking his cup back and placing my own mug in front of me. On a coaster, of course.

I smirked at him. He seemed to know what I was thinking. "Not one word," was all he said. "Now, try your kurnik," he said.

I did as I was told, picking up my fork and hesitantly placing a bite in my mouth. As the taste enveloped my mouth, I gasped. "This is really good, Comrade!" I said excitedly, around my food.

"See, I told you that you might like it," he said, digging into his own food.

"You sure know how to cook! We should do this more often and I can try more Russian food!" I knew I had crossed a line as soon as it left my mouth.

His mouth tightened into a thin line, his eyebrows furrowed. I didn't know why he was so upset about my suggestion, though. I knew that it was blurring guardian/charge lines a little, but really, we'd already done that so much. As he took in my expression, he lightened a little, and just said, "Maybe."

"No, really," I told him, grinning. "You cook much better than the cafeteria!" In fact, I wished I could spend every meal with him. However, I knew that wasn't possible.

"I don't know about that," he said bashfully.

"The cafeteria would seriously screw something like this up. The best food there are the donuts and the chicken nuggets, you know."

He snickered before taking the final bite of his food.

"We need to get you back to your room," he told me, glancing at the clock. I looked and saw that it was ten-thirty. Pretty late, really, considering we were alone. It was pretty bright out by now, too.

I helped him place the dishes in the sink and went to put on my shoes.

He walked me to my room, nodding to the Moroi woman manning the front desk and the dorm matron at the end of the hall.

"No practice tomorrow," he reminded me. "It's Saturday."

"Right. Thanks for everything," I smiled a little, looking up into his eyes.

"It was no problem. I'm your guardian," he reminded me. "I'll be there whenever you need me. And now, in an emergency," he said this part very pointedly, "You know where to find me."

I nodded. "Goodnight, Dimitri."

"Goodnight, Rose," he said.

I closed the door as he began to walk away. I slid down against my door, completely happy and satisfied just by having been in his presence. I had it so bad for him, it wasn't even funny.

**I hope you guys liked it. I know chapter three took me a couple months to get out, whereas this one only took me a few days. Sorry about that, by the way. It seems that the story is finally ready to be told. Also, I know that Dimitri and Rose do seem to be getting close quite fast. Part of it is because right now, the pacing is a lot faster than the actual series. Another reason is because now that she's his charge, and she's invited him into her life, it's easier for him to allow himself to do so. Anyways, I hope you all liked it!**


	5. Chapter 5

I spent the next day hidden out in Lissa's room with her, despite my house arrest. Natalie was out and about with friends, but Lissa didn't feel like socializing with anyone.

The only times we ventured out of her room were for lunch and the feeders. Technically, I was supposed to be in my room, but I didn't really care. Lissa needed me.

When we went to lunch, the whispers followed us.

_It was still alive when she found it. _

_It was all over her blanket! _

_Just staring blankly!_

_Still alive._

_Still alive._

_Still alive._

Lissa was becoming more and more upset. The rumors were circulating and had begun to swirl around in her head, beating at her.

I should have known something like this would happen. Alice had foretold it, just the day before. _You aren't protecting the Princess, Rose._

I had been so wrapped up in my crush on Dimitri that I had been neglecting my best friend. Lissa was the only one who had ever really cared about me. She had invited me over to her house for holidays and summers. I had spent the majority of my Thanksgivings and Christmases with the Dragomirs, and this was how I repaid her- by neglecting her.

"Hey, Liss," I started. "Do you want to go to the gym with me?" I was just trying to take her mind off of the whispers, really.

She looked at me incredulously. "Go to the gym with you? Have you ever even _been _to the gym?" she asked.

"Well, yeah. I go all the time," I told her. "I found it helps my magic, me being in shape and stuff."

"Well, I guess I could go… is there a certain dress code?"

I nearly guffawed at her. A dress code? For the gym?

Instead, I held my laughter inside. "No. But I would suggest wearing something other than a dress if you're planning on working out with me!"

"Do you have anything I could wear?" she looked at me beseechingly. I knew for a fact that Lissa wouldn't have any active wear

"Yeah, I might have something that will fit you," I examined her. Really, I knew that Lissa and I were not the same size, but maybe we could find some way to get my clothes to fit her.

We went to my room, and she sat down on my bed while I looked through my wardrobe. I finally found some spandex that were a little too tight on me most days.

"I don't know if these will actually fit you," I told her. "We can try them, though."

I motioned for her to go into my bathroom and try them on.

She came out a few minutes later. Well, they sort of fit. Well enough to go to an empty gym, anyway. They were kind of baggy in the butt and on the thighs, but fit pretty well in the waist.

"They'll stay up, at least," I commented.

She nodded. "Do you have any shirts?"

I began to rifle through my clothes once again, intent to find something.

I finally found a shirt that hadn't fit me since we'd left the elementary campus. It was a pale pink color with sparkles sewn onto the hem. "Sorry," I said, wincing at the ugliness.

"Can you believe that was in style back then?"

"Didn't you wear this in eighth grade?" she asked.

"Yep. Well, you might as well go try it on. Sorry, but my sports bras won't fit you at all."

She came back, tied on some Ked's, and departed with me to the gym.

When we got there, there was one dhampir in the gym. I stared him down, trying to figure out whether he would snitch on us. It was Mason Ashford. He was a novice who was in my Pre-Calculus class.

"Hey, Rose, Lissa!" he waved, smiling. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Just working out," I tried to shrug nonchalantly. "It's Lissa's first time."

"An exercise virgin, huh?" he asked jokingly.

I grinned at him. We talked occasionally in class, usually during homework time or when I had a question about the lesson. He was pretty chill.

"That's Lissa, for sure," I said. "She had to borrow my clothes!" I crowed.

"Well, if you two need any help, don't hesitate to call me over," he offered, winking.

"You act as if we're a bunch of girls," I said, a little offended.

"Well, you are girls," he said, confused. "And Moroi. Moroi never exercise."

I leveled a glare at him, before backing off and smiling my best man-eater smile. "You won't tell anyone, will you?" I batted my eyelashes at him.

Lissa sent me a shocked feeling through the bond. _Why are you flirting with him?_

"Now why would I do that?" he asked.

"I dunno," I said. "I just know that I'm not supposed to leave my dorm for anything, even studying, without my guardian."

He sent me a pitying look.

"You poor caged animal," he commented.

I grinned at his sarcasm. "I can't be tamed, Ashford!"

He laughed. "Right, well I'll let you get on with your workout if you let me get on with mine!"

"Deal," I told him.

We walked our separate ways. "What were you doing back there, Rose?" Lissa whispered as we walked to the opposite side of the room, towards the weight machines.

"Just covering our tracks," I told her. "I'm not supposed to be out and about, remember?"

She nodded. "I remember, but I figured you just didn't care. And anyway, why did you have to flirt with that poor boy in order to do that? He's much too smitten with you."

"What?" I asked, confused.

She gave me an annoyed huff, but looked much too adorable doing it to really bother me. "He likes you, Rose!" she whispered this again, clearly being careful for him not to overhear us.

Thinking back, his face did have a certain glow whenever I talked to him. Too bad I couldn't like him back, either. He may have been a dhampir, but it was pretty common for teenagers to test the waters when it came to species. Mason was certainly nice. He was cute, even.

But Mason wasn't Dimitri.

I pushed the thought of Dimitri down and focused on helping Lissa.

"First," I said. "We'll stretch."

I demonstrated the different stretches for her, then did them with her. I hoped that my back wouldn't ache too much without Dimitri stretching it for me.

We jogged half a mile; Lissa was red faced and out of breath by the end of the first one.

After that, I taught her how to use the weight machines. Dimitri and I had been using them since about a week after I had began working out with him.

Lissa, it turned out, did not like working out.

"How can you stand this, Rose?" she whined. "I stink and my face is probably red and my muscles are starting to cramp."

I just grinned at her. "Do you feel a little better?" I asked.

She thought for a moment before nodding. "Good," I said. "You wanna go back to the dorms and clean up?"

She nodded again, and we linked arms as we walked toward the door.

By that time, Mason was long gone, probably running laps.

As I went to open the door, the door moved far too easily.

I looked to see who was on the other side, only to find Dimitri staring down at me.

"Dimitri?" I asked, shocked.

"Aren't you supposed to be in your dorm?" he asked, knowing full well that I was on house arrest when I wasn't in classes or with my guardian.

I tried to think of a lie, but didn't have the heart to lie to him. His eyes were both stern and amused, and I didn't know how he managed to pull that off.

Instead, I smiled at him. "I just wanted to work out," I said. "I heard you should only have one day a week off from running."

His eyes softened even more, and I think he didn't see Lissa behind me. "You could have come and found me, then," he replied. "I would have come with you."

Lissa came out from behind the door, looking befuddled. "Hello, Princess," he put his guardian mask up as quickly as he had dropped it. I nearly sighed.

"Hi, Guardian Belikov. Do you usually supervise Rose when she runs? She seems to be in tip-top shape!" she smiled angelically at him.

"Yes, I do. She seems determined to exercise every day," he shot me a careful look. He knew that I hadn't told Lissa about him training me.

"Well, I definitely couldn't keep up," she said lightly.

"Sorry, Dimitri," I looked up into his eyes, silently begging for his approval. "I knew that I felt better when I ran off my frustration, so I thought it might help Lissa, too."

He nodded in understanding. "Where are you two off to now?" he asked.

Lissa and I looked at each other. "We were going to the dorms, but if you wanted to, you could hang out with us," Lissa said. I sensed her using compulsion on him, hearing the soothing and logical tone in her voice.

"No, he doesn't have to do that, Lissa," I told her sharply. I glanced at Dimitri, who wasn't exactly under her thrall, still in the process of trying to shake it off. "He was probably on his way to work out, himself."

"Oh, okay," she said, slightly hurt. She dropped the compulsion, and Dimitri finally managed to shake the it completely off.

"I should definitely take you two back to the dorms," he interjected. "I'd hate for you to get in trouble just for working out."

I smiled again, my heart tugging as he half-smiled back. "Next time you two want to go to the gym, just ask me," he said.

He tugged at a piece of his hair; it had fallen out of his hair-tie at the nape on his neck. Dimitri was nervous. I wondered if it was because of Lissa.

He walked alongside us across campus. Occasionally, my hand would brush against his on accident. Each time, it would leave electrical currents circling through my veins and joints.

If Lissa picked up on this, she didn't mention it.

When we arrived at my room, Dimitri nodded at us. "Bye, Princess," he said, nodding respectfully. "I'll see you around, Rose."

When he looked at me, he smiled just a little, sending a wave as he walked away.

As I closed the door behind us, Lissa commented, "Guardian Belikov seems pretty relaxed around you."

I gave her a frank look. "What do you expect? I spend an hour with him after school every day."

She nodded.

I remembered how she had attempted to compel him. My earlier anger and irritation came back, full force.

"I can't believe you were using compulsion on him!" I raved.

She looked taken aback. "Usually you don't care. Usually, you encourage me to compel people to get out of trouble," she defended herself.

"This wasn't a life or death situation! That's my guardian, already trying to protect me! Dimitri wouldn't rat us out unless we were doing something dangerous!"

"Okay, okay," she relented. "Sorry, I won't do it again. I just don't get why you care so much!"

I sat down, mostly feeling a little pathetic and rejected. Of course she wouldn't get it. I hadn't told her how I felt about him. As I studied her more, I realized I couldn't tell her. I didn't know if she would ever understand.

**TRSTRSTRS**

When we returned back to classes on Monday, the rumors about the fox had flared back up.

When we got to Animal Behavior and Physiology, I noticed that Mia looked undeniably smug. I pondered whether she was the one to kill the fox, but decided that she wouldn't do that. Mia seemed to be more fond of fighting with her words, not actions.

Who could have done it? Why would they have done it?

When we were talking about wolves, Mia raised her hand to ask a question.

"Yes, Miss Rinaldi?" Ms. Meissner asked.

"I was just wondering… do foxes have Alphas, too?"

She sent a vicious grin our way. The class broke into nervous giggles. No one could believe that Mia would go there.

"We are talking about wolves today, Miss Rinaldi," Ms. Meissner said sternly.

Soon, she set us off to work in groups of two for an assignment. I could sense Lissa's pain at the mention of the fox.

"Don't worry," I told her. "I've got a way-"

"Hey, Lissa!"

I looked up, annoyed at being interrupted. When I saw who was interrupting me, I became even more irritated. Ralf Sarcozy. He was a schmuck. He was pretty chubby by Moroi standards, and also rather unattractive. He also thought he was the shit because his mom was a royal. He didn't seem to get that he was only half Voda.

"So admit it," he said obnoxiously. "You killed the fox. You're trying to convince Kirova that you're unstable, so you can escape again."

"Screw you," I told him quietly.

"Are you offering?" he asked.

"From what I've heard, there isn't that much to screw," I said. He wanted to play? I could play.

"Wow. You have changed," he commented nonchalantly. "Last I remembered, you weren't too picky about who you got naked with."

"At least I can manage to get naked with someone," I shot back.

"Hey, I just got it!" he said, a nasty smile on his face. "It was _you _who killed the fox! Some kind of weird lesbian vood- ahh!"

Ralf was on fire.

Ms. Meissner finally noticed that something was going on and ran to get the fire extinguisher. Before she could spray it, however, the flames died out.

There wasn't a single singe mark on him.

I was jealous.

"Ms. Hathaway!" Ms. Meissner said angrily. "The nerve of you- setting a classmate on fire!"

She was interrupted by a round of laughter from none other than Christian Ozera. He had been the one to set Ralf on fire. I admired his gumption. However, I decided right then and there that I did not want him around Lissa. He was far too unstable. Far more unstable than me, if I hadn't even thought of setting Ralf on fire.

I was still kind of jealous that I hadn't done that, and I didn't know the spell.

"To the Headmistress' office!" Ms. Meissner pointed him out the door. He continued laughing as he walked out the door.

"Liss, you need to stay away from him," I pleaded. "He just set a guy on fire!"

She nodded, finally in agreement.

After school, I met up with Dimitri. "Hi," I said a little nervously.

"Hello, Rose," he said.

"So what do you want me to do this afternoon?"

"Well, you know you have your laps. After that, we can try to spar, if you'd like."

I looked up at him incredulously. "You'd really spar with me?" I asked.

There was an amused look in his eyes, and his lips twitched a little.

"I will," he said. "I need to see where you are so we can either fix it or build on it."

I nodded, walking over to stretch.

After my laps, which Dimitri had kept at sixteen, we walked over to the area where there were lines.

"These red lines," he explained, "are out. If either of us step outside of them, the other gets a point. Each time you get a hit on me, you get a point, and vice versa. No hitting is allowed about the base of the neck."

I nodded, taking in the rules.

"So first, you'll want to get into your fighting stance."

I looked at him, confusedly. "There's a fighting stance?" I asked.

He pinched the bridge of his nose for the merest second, muttering something in Russian.

"You'll want to stand sideways," he told me. "Then you'll want to stand with your feet a shoulder-length apart. Crouch a little, but don't tense your muscles too much. Also, keep your hands close to your body."

I looked at him. He shook his head and moved over to adjust my body. I tried not to shiver when he touched my bare skin.

"Now," he began, "You can make the first move."

I looked at him uncertainly. I didn't even know what to do.

He began to circle me, so I copied his movements. I finally decided on a course of action as I took in his height and strength.

I sprang towards him, aiming a roundhouse kick at his stomach. He blocked it immediately. Before I could think of another move, he made his own.

My God, the way he moved was beautiful.

He hooked his leg around mine, creating a momentum to bring both of us down, with him on top of me.

I felt a slight pressure beneath my left breast. I looked to see his hand there. His hand was pressed against my ribs, seemingly holding an invisible stake. "Dead," he whispered.

That fight had been less than twenty seconds, I realized.

All other thought fled from my mind as I got caught in his eyes, staring directly into my own. They were the most beautiful brown color, almost as if they really had been mixed with chocolate.

His hair was hanging around both of our faces, creating a curtain that hid away the rest of the world. All I wanted in that moment was to kiss him. It was all I had wanted for a while, really. But now, the temptation was too much. If he didn't move, I would surely cave in and kiss him.

Luckily, or maybe unluckily, he finally seemed to come back to his senses. He rolled off of me and then offered me a hand.

"That wasn't bad," he commented, dispelling any tension that had been present.

"It lasted less than twenty seconds!" I exclaimed. "I'm horrible!"

"Well, you've never actually fought before," he said, shrugging. "If we really work at this, you could be good. You have good instincts from what I saw in that short time."

I looked at him, analyzing whether he was telling the truth. I couldn't really tell.

"Let's try again," he suggested.

I was all for it.

**TRSTRSTRS**

On Halloween night, Lissa and I hung out in her room with Natalie. We even dressed up; Lissa was an ice-skater and I was a princess. Normally, I would hate dressing up as a princess, but it was the only costume Natalie had from previous years that would stretch enough to fit me.

I had to say, the dress fit me like a glove.

"Oh, Rose," Lissa sighed happily. "You look so pretty!"

"Thanks, Liss," I said as I finished straightening my hair. Usually, it was pretty long but now it was down to my bottom, without any wave in it.

I looked hot.

If only Dimitri could see me.

It was then that I thought up a plan. "Hey, Liss?" I began.

"Yeah?" I could feel her curiosity through the bond.

"What do you say to going to a few parties in the dhampir dorms?"

She frowned at me. "We aren't that close of friends with any of the novices," she observed.

I nearly sighed. "Mason Ashford invited me, and I thought you might want to stop by for a few minutes," I said.

"But what if we got caught? You're already on thin ice! Guardian Belikov already caught us last weekend at the gym!"

"He didn't care," I blew her comment off. "And actually, I wanted to stop by and say happy Halloween to him, anyway."

"Why?" she narrowed her eyes in confusion.

"Well, honestly, I just kind of want to bug him," I grinned.

"We don't have to stay long, do we?" she asked.

"Of course not, Liss," I promised. "I really just wanted to say hi to Mason and then say hi to Dimitri."

Her eyes narrowed again, and she became suspicious. She knew that I wasn't telling her something.

"Rose, do you have a crush on someone?" she asked, grinning.

I finally remembered Natalie was in the room, and she was looking on in wide-eyed interest.

The name _Mason _came through the bond and I sighed in relief. She hadn't figured out that I was falling harder and harder for Dimitri.

"No," I protested. "Anyways, let's go! The party will be in full swing by now!"

"Do you want to come, Natalie?" Lissa invited her cousin. I really hadn't wanted Natalie on this escapade, but if she could keep Lissa company while I snuck up to Dimitri's it would be all the better.

"I don't know… I don't know the dhampirs very well at all."

"Come on, Nat," I grinned at her. "It should be fun!"

"Oh, well, alright. Do I look okay?" she asked. She was dressed in a Tinkerbell costume that really just made her look even more pale. But hey, I wasn't going to burst her bubble.

"You look great," I fudged.

"Alright!" she smiled, showing the smallest amount of fangs.

We snuck out of the room, careful to avoid the dorm matrons and several guardians along the way.

A few times I had to pull them into alcoves to stay hidden.

At one point, Lissa whispered, "How do you know about all these?"

"A trickster never reveals her, uh, tricks," I answered mysteriously.

"That's _magicians, _Rose," she laughed quietly, her chest heaving the smallest amounts against my back.

I checked to make sure the coast was clear before ushering them towards the dhampir dorms. "Here we are, ladies," I announced. "Now, there is a door in the back that should be unlocked."

"Seriously, how do you know all this?" Lissa raised an eyebrow at me. Ugh, how jealous that made me.

"A magician never reveals her tricks," I snorted.

Lissa just rolled her eyes while Natalie giggled.

"Now, go!" I whisper-shouted.

We made a break for it, running towards the door in the back of the building. We finally made it and I pulled the door open quietly, hoping it wasn't squeaky.

It led right up to a staircase. "Mason said his room was on the second floor," I told them. "We'll probably be able to find it with the music," I surmised.

They nodded in agreement, and as we walked up the stairs we could indeed hear music emanating from the second floor.

"I'd say it's this way!" I said excitedly.

Honestly, I wasn't that thrilled about the party. Now I just had an excuse for being out of my dorm, besides just seeing Dimitri.

We knocked on the door, even though it was common party practice to just walk in.

Mason opened the door, his smile brightening the moment he saw us. "Rose!" he looked behind me. "Lissa, Natalie! It's great to see you guys!"

"Back at ya," I grinned.

"Come on in, guys," he said. He gestured grandiosely towards the party, which really did have hardly any Moroi. "We're about to play beer pong," he said excitedly.

I nearly groaned.

"Don't tell me you're bad at that game, Rose," he guffawed. "I thought you said you were good at everything you did?"

"Oh, I am," I smiled my man-eater smile. "And I do mean _everything,"_ at this point I wiggled my eyebrows. "I just don't like beer pong."

"You'd lose anyway," he said. "Eddie's the reigning champ."

I rolled my eyes. "I'll let him remain king for tonight," I warned.

I watched a couple rounds of beer pong before I made my escape.

**TRSTRSTRS**

I snuck down the flight of stairs and hid in a crevice I had found a few years before.

I listened for the sound of precise footsteps, a sure sign that a guardian was nearby on their shift. If I was even caught out of the corner of an eye, I could be done for. Wearing a princess dress was rather conspicuous.

I jogged to the staff dorms, picking up the dress to avoid dirtying it or tripping.

I pondered how to get in.

I supposed they wouldn't actually have any security, since they were allowed to wander as they pleased.

I finally decided to walk in through the front door. If worse came to worst, I could just say that I had needed to talk to my guardian. Though they would be suspicious, since I was in a princess dress and I hadn't gone through the correct channels. Whatever. I'd just have to avoid getting caught.

I didn't encounter any staff members, except for a quick call with Guardian Alto who was walking arm-in-arm with another guardian, Celeste something or other.

I got up to Dimitri's room okay. I glanced around cautiously before knocking softly on the door. Oh no, what if he was asleep?

I scolded myself before reasoning that it was only nine. Who would go to sleep at nine, on a weekend especially?

The door opened. "Rose?"

I looked up at Dimitri, who was in a pair of soft looking sweats and a t-shirt that had something written in Cyrillic.

"Hey, Comrade," I said. "I just wanted to come by and say happy Halloween!"

He looked around the hall furtively. He had a frustrated look on his face. "Hurry up and get in here, Rose."

I felt a bit hurt, but did as he said. I had already scouted the hallway.

"Say, do you guys even celebrate Halloween in the old country?"

"Rose," Dimitri said sternly. "You're supposed to be in your room. Not only are you forbidden from social activities, but it's also after curfew. I know that last weekend I let you come here and eat dinner, but you can't just come here uninvited. Especially when anyone could see you, and you could get in massive trouble!"

"It's not like I'd get kicked out anyways," I said bitterly, kicking the floor lightly. "Somebody paid for me to stay here, so here I will stay."

"Money can only cover up so many grievances," he reminded me.

I looked at him calculatingly. Why was he suddenly so different?

"Is something wrong?" I finally asked.

"No," he said a little gruffly.

"Are you sure, Dimitri?" I hoped my use of his first name would soften him. It usually made him happier if I called him by name, instead of Comrade. He'd even told me once that his family called him Dimka. Whatever a Dimka was… "Dimka?" I asked.

He looked at me, a haunted look in his eyes. Something really was wrong.

"You can tell me," I urged. "You said I can tell you anything, and I'm returning the favor."

I sat down on his bed, toeing off the nude colored high heels I'd been wearing all night. I patted the spot next to me, inviting him to relax.

He finally sat down, still sad looking.

"Is it about your old charge?" I asked softly. "Ivan?"

Shock registered on his face, and I could tell that he wasn't used to being read so easily.

"Today's the year anniversary of when he was killed," he muttered.

"Oh, Dimitri," I whispered. I pulled him towards me, for once enveloping him in my hug, instead of the other way around.

I rubbed his back, fighting the urge to kiss his head. Dimitri wasn't mine.

"It's not your fault," I told him. I looked into his eyes. "It isn't," I insisted as he opened his mouth to protest. "It's not like you were on duty," I said. "Weren't you visiting your family?"

He nodded. "See, it isn't your fault, Dimka," I said. Calling him Dimka felt weird on my tongue, and I knew that I wouldn't make it a habit of calling him that. Why couldn't they have nicknamed him Dimi or something? That was much cuter.

I shook the thoughts from my head, trying to comfort him.

"What if it happened again to you?" he finally asked.

"It still wouldn't be your fault," I maintained. "I know you would rather die than let your charge down. As much as I would hate for you to throw your life away for mine," I whispered. "I know you would do it, if you were forced. I have so much faith in you."

His eyelids began to droop a little, and for the first time I noticed that he smelt a little like vodka. Ivan's death really had hit him hard. I had never given it too much thought before.

I continued to rub his back until I was sure he was asleep. I then pulled the blankets out from beneath him, covering him with them.

I threw the empty bottle of vodka out before placing his glass in the sink.

I had a decision to make now. I could stay the night, or I could go back to Mason's party and hang out with Lissa and Natalie.

I checked up on Lissa through the bond. I'd forgotten her for a while, and I felt immensely guilty.

She wasn't drunk, but she was having fun. I think she enjoyed the carefree atmosphere that permeated the whole party. She liked that there were no politics.

I could tell she had had a few drinks, but nothing too bad.

She was safe, she was okay.

I was going to catch hell for this tomorrow, but I couldn't find it in myself to care. I hoped Dimitri didn't mind me rooting through his things to find something to wear. I finally just grabbed a large t-shirt that was big enough to be a dress on me.

I went to the bathroom, taking off the dress that had become uncomfortable within the last hour.

I laid the dress over a chair at the table before turning out the light and lying down on the bed beside Dimitri.

I hoped he would feel better in the morning. Either that, or he was so drunk he wouldn't even remember. He hadn't struck me as being that intoxicated, though. Hopefully, he wouldn't freak out when he found me in his bed.

My eyes were getting heavier and heavier, and finally I let them droop. I vaguely noticed that one of us had scooted closer to each other as I fell asleep.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning, I woke up encased in warmth. I felt safe. I nearly moaned, just from the feeling of contentment that was running through me.

I didn't stop to wonder why I was in somebody's arms, or what time it was. I just reveled in it all, knowing somehow that it was Dimitri who held me. This was the happiest I'd felt in a long time.

I let myself float around in my own mind, imagining sunlight peeking in through curtains. I was in a different bed, a different city, in a home. I was happy and free and unburdened by taboos society had foolishly set.

I finally awoke, still in Dimitri's arms. He was still asleep.

I studied him. He was so beautiful. He looked so peaceful in his sleep, unworried and carefree. He was smiling a little. He had the barest hint of stubble gracing his jaw, and I wondered how scratchy it was. His eyelashes were so long, nearly reaching his cheekbones.

I glanced at the clock, to see the red numbers glaring back at me. Six-thirty pm. The time that I usually met Dimitri at the gym.

The sun was still shining, though not as brightly as it normally was as I woke up.

I debated waking Dimitri up, but he beat me to it.

He began to stir, groaning. I closed my eyes, feigning sleep.

I heard his sharp intake of breath. He hadn't expected to wake up next to me. He muttered something in Russian, and I wished that I had progressed enough to understand him when he did that. He let go of me, and I instantly felt the loss.

"Rose," he said. His accent tickled my heart. It was thicker than normal, and I wondered if he was particularly hung over or just sleepy.

"Rose," he shook me lightly.

I finally made myself open my eyes. "You need to get back to your room," he said. I nodded and got up. He gaped at me as I walked to the bathroom to pee.

As I sat on the toilet, I wondered why he had stared at me. Was he upset with me? Was he angry? What if he never wanted to speak to me again and asked to be reassigned to someone else? _Or maybe… he just liked what he saw, _a voice nagged. Oh, how I wanted that voice to be right.

I flushed and washed my hands before exiting the bathroom to what could possibly be my doom.

"Why did you stay the night last night?" he finally asked.

"I fell asleep," I said.

"In my shirt?" he asked pointedly. I looked down. I had forgotten that I'd come over in that princess dress.

"Okay, so I hated that dress, Dimitri," I put my hands on my hips. "And I was tired, so I decided, since you had fallen asleep, I might as well not risk another trek across campus. You were right about money not being able cover up all my crimes. And so, I just went to sleep."

"Next to me," he noted.

"Next to you," I agreed. I looked at him, trying to figure out whether he was feeling any better. I didn't want to bring it up. I didn't want to make him hurt anymore than he was last night.

"I'll walk you to your dorm," he said. "Do you want any breakfast before we leave? I don't think we'll be able to make training, now."

"What do you have?" I asked.

"I have bliny."

I didn't know what bliny was, but after eating that kurnik the weekend before, I was willing to try anything that he cooked. "Well, sure," I accepted. "Does your head hurt at all?" I asked. "I could get you some ibuprofen or something; I have some in my purse."

"Why do you have ibuprofen in your purse?" he asked, a little suspiciously.

"In case someone has cramps," I shrugged. "You don't understand how much cramps suck, Comrade. Anyways, you didn't answer my question. Do you need some ibuprofen?"

He shook his head. "I wasn't drunk last night," he informed me. "Just a little…"

"Tipsy?" I supplied.

"Buzzed?" he asked, trying the word out. I tried not to laugh at his facial expression, which was just too cute.

"If you're okay, then get to making that bliny," I demanded.

He saluted mockingly and began to make breakfast.

I wished that every morning could be like this. Just us, being ourselves.

I knew that Dimitri was different on the inside than the person he showed everyone else. He was much more caring and friendly, and so affected by so many things. He was intense, sure, but it certainly wasn't a bad thing. I just wished he could always be that way, instead of an outwardly stoic guardian.

I wondered if he resented Moroi. I felt that if I were in his place, I would have.

"Hey," I suddenly remembered. "The queen's coming tonight, isn't she?"

He nodded, while I grimaced. I wasn't the queen's biggest fan, to be honest. She was in the same boat as Kirova, pompous and grating. I had met her a few times when she had visited the Dragomirs, though she had never acknowledged my presence.

"You have classes today, too" he reminded me.

"I hate Mondays," I groaned.

"Mondays hate you too," he joked.

I giggled, glad to see him making jokes. That meant he was in a particularly good mood.

We talked lightly over breakfast before he finally remembered that I wasn't wearing any pants.

"Um, Comrade, I don't think any of your pants will fit me," I told him. "You're like a foot taller than me."

"I think I've got some sweats that you could wear," he said. He placed his plate in the sink, rinsing it out and letting water sit over it. He walked over to his wardrobe and knelt down.

"Aha!" he said triumphantly. "They have elastic in both the waist and the ankles, so you won't tread on them, at least."

"Doesn't mean I won't be sagging," I pointed out. "I've got enough swag to pull it off though, yo!" I made some sort of hand gesture that I had seen on TV once. Dimitri just rolled his eyes, but smiled nonetheless.

"Now put them on and we can leave," he said. He turned around, gathering the pink princess dress in his arms.

I quickly put the sweats on, wondering why he bothered to turn away when I'd spent about an hour without them on.

"I need to go to the feeders," I announced to him.

"But you already ate breakfast?" he asked, confused.

"I'm a growing girl, Comrade," I told him, grinning. "I always go to the feeders and eat breakfast. I mean, I guess I could go at lunch…"

He shook his head. "I guess I'll just have to wait for you to get done, so I can escort you to class if you're late."

"Thanks," I smiled at him, nearly losing all my control.

"Well, come on," he said. "We should still try to avoid being late."

Poor Dimitri. I knew how much it bothered him if things weren't on schedule.

He was still holding my dress, and I let him. "We'll take a different staircase," he told me. "People don't use it very often."

It was almost as if he was inviting me to come back, but I knew that was not the case. He just didn't want people to get the wrong idea. If it was found out that I had spent the night, he could be fired. I didn't think he could be arrested, though, since we hadn't actually, well, _done it._

I certainly didn't want him fired.

"Rose," he began.

"What?" I span to look at him.

"You shouldn't have come to see me last night."

I bit my lip. "Look, I really did just want to say hi. I hadn't planned on staying the whole night."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why would you come to say hi in the first place? I'm just your guardian."

"You're my friend, Dimitri. Not only that, but you're willing to risk your life for mine. I know that it's your duty and all that, but I still appreciate it."

"I'm your friend?" he asked.

"Well, I had hoped so," I said, raising my own eyebrows. "I mean, usually friends hang out every day and help each other. And you are always helping me."

He had a fiery look in his eyes again, similar to how it had looked when I had asked him to train me.

"I'm your friend, too, right?" I asked.

He looked contemplative, before answering, "Yes, I would think so."

"Good," I said. I nearly grabbed his hand- friends could hold hands, right?- but decided not to.

"Though, I really wish you hadn't seen me like that," he muttered.

I didn't know if he had meant to be heard or not, but I finally did grab his hand. I gave it a light squeeze before letting it go once again.

We arrived at my dorm building. "Do you want me to wait outside?" he asked.

I shook my head. "You can come on up. I'll just change in the bathroom."

He nodded and followed me. I smiled at the Moroi who seemed to be on duty. He waved at me confusedly, probably wondering where I had been. Unfortunately for him, fortunately for me, students were allowed to be out in the mornings, once it was about five.

I didn't think he realized I wasn't supposed to leave my dorm, though. These people _really _hadn't been trained to deal with Rose Hathaway.

My room was up on the third floor, of course. I think they had tried to avoid me escaping through the window as I had in my younger days.

I pulled a key out of my purse and unlocked the door. I beckoned Dimitri to follow me in. Before he did, he glanced around the hallway to make sure no one was looking.

"Your room is kind of messy," he observed.

"Yeah, well we all can't be as neat as you, Comrade," I replied.

He chuckled a little, the sound warming my heart. I looked through my wardrobe, while he sat the dress on my bed. "Yeah, that's a good place for it. I need to remember to give it back to Natalie."

"You borrowed it from someone?" he asked, surprised.

"We haven't been shopping since you guys brought us back… plus, do you think I'd buy something that pink?"

He laughed, continuing to look around.

I looked through my wardrobe once more, attempting to find something cute.

I finally found a dress that Lissa and I had bought last spring. It was cute, but it definitely wouldn't get me into trouble. Exactly what I liked now. When we had bought it, I had complained that it was too conservative.

I might as well wear it before it got too cold to do so. It was already cold, really. I had walked through campus without any shoes on, since all I had worn last night were heels. It was now November 1st, All Saints Day, and today it was unusually warm for a Montana fall.

I grabbed a cute pair of lacy red underwear and headed for the bathroom. "Don't come bursting in if something falls," I warned, shaking my finger at him. "I'm kind of clumsy."

He smirked, "Okay. So, you're saying, if I hear a giant clunk, I should let you die?"

I shook my head. "I'm not that clumsy," I defended. "I just might accidentally knock over a shampoo bottle or something."

I walked into the bathroom, hanging my clothes on the toilet. I began to run the water, then stripped.

It was an uneventful shower, to say the least. As much as I didn't want to wash Dimitri's scent off of me, it felt good to feel the water beating against my skin and scalp.

I got out, blow-drying and brushing my hair. I applied a light layer of makeup, mainly just lip gloss and the smallest amount of mascara.

I pulled on a bandeau, my underwear, and then the dress. I looked good.

I walked out of the bathroom, wondering what shoes I could wear.

"Is that what you'll be wearing when the queen visits tonight?" Dimitri asked, eyeing my outfit.

I nodded. "Normally, I would wear something a little more formal, but it's either this or a lame sweater."

He shook his head, a smile jerking at the corner of his lips.

"What shoes do you think I should wear?" I asked.

He just shrugged as if to say, _Why would you ask me about clothes?_

I shrugged back at him, finally deciding on a pair of flats.

I grabbed my backpack, throwing it over my shoulder.

"Did you do your homework last night?" he asked.

"Yep," I answered. "I even finished it before I went to Lissa's."

"I'm proud of you, Rose," he looked down at me, smiling softly.

I wanted to fly away right there. Or maybe burst into flames. Either would have been an appropriate response to the look he was giving me.

Instead, I motioned that it was time for us to leave. I checked my alarm clock as I glanced back. It was 7:45 pm. I had fifteen minutes to get to the feeders, feed, and get to class. I hoped I could do it. The feeders would probably be packed this close to class.

Dimitri and I walked side-by-side until I got to the feeders. "I'll wait outside," he told me.

I nodded at him, knowing that it would probably make him uncomfortable to watch me feed.

When I walked in, I discovered that I was right. The feeders _were _absolutely swamped. I contemplated simply waiting until lunch. I wasn't a fan of waiting until my next meal, but clearly the feeders would need a break from all the bites.

I sighed, yearning for some blood. I could deal. I had gone a week without blood before. I could go a few hours without getting it, though it had been a little more than twenty-four hours since then.

I walked out of the feeders. "Surely you can't have fed that quickly," Dimitri commented.

"Oh, I didn't," I responded. "They were swamped. There was no way I'd get in in time to go to class."

"I'm sorry," he told me.

"I don't know why you'd be sorry," I said. "It's not like it's your fault. I'll just wait until lunch."

He nodded. "Your friends should still be at breakfast, right?" he asked.

I nodded. They would be departing in ten minutes, but at this time they were still in the commons.

I looked up at Dimitri, smiling giddily.

"Thanks for everything, Dimitri," I said.

"It's no problem, Rose," he replied. "I'll see you after school!"

"The gym?" I asked.

He nodded. I waved goodbye and walked into the commons, looking for Lissa.

I finally found her at her normal table. I walked towards her, and I felt her annoyance through the bond. Ouch. It was directed at me.

"Hey, Liss," I said lightly.

"Rose, where did you disappear to last night?"

She whisper-shouted her question, looking around to make sure no one outside our table heard.

I debated on what to tell her. Finally, I said, "I went to say hi to Dimitri."

"You never came back!" she was nearly yelling.

"I checked up on you through the bond," I whispered. "You seemed like you were having fun to me."

"I thought you'd take us along when you went to see him," she said, considerably quieter.

I couldn't let her know that I had wanted private time with Dimitri, even though we hadn't done anything untoward.

"I just went back to my room once I'd stopped by," I told her. It wasn't exactly a lie. "I was tired."

She nodded, biting her lip. "I did have fun, though."

"I knew you were having fun," I said. "That's why I didn't come back and make you leave."

She nodded again.

"I'll walk you to class," I told her. "Then I'll head to class myself."

We had ten minutes, I could get us to both places on time.

**TRSTRSTRS**

After school, I met Dimitri at the gym. I was wearing a pair of yoga pants, my running shoes, and a loose-fitting tank top.

I noticed how Dimitri's eyes followed my body as I moved through the gym. I wondered if maybe he felt the same way I did, but dismissed the idea. He wouldn't ever like a Moroi. Especially not one who was as different from him as me. Though, I had to admit we seemed to fit well together.

I smiled at him, and he actually smiled back.

"What are we doing today?" I asked.

"We'll do sixteen laps and then we'll spar."

I couldn't wait to spar him some more, despite how badly I had lost when we first began. Despite the fact that I was still frequently losing badly to him.

When we finally got to sparring, he told me we wouldn't be doing the normal boundaries exercise, but just regular sparring. He said that even faces weren't out of bounds.

I didn't want to hit him in the face. I was pretty sure, though, that I wasn't strong enough to cause any bruising, anyway.

He showed me a few moves that I had seen novices use.

Finally, he looked at the clock. "You had better go get ready," he said. "Plus, you smell like sweat," he joked.

I nearly clocked him. Instead, I just laughed. "You do, too, Comrade."

"I didn't work up a sweat," he insisted.

He was right, of course. He hadn't had to work very hard at all.

"Okay," I said. "Will you be there?"

"Yes," he answered. "I'll be on guardian duty, though. So don't try to distract me." He grinned. "I am not one of the royal guards in England. Don't try to make laugh."

I just smiled, watching him as he walked away.

Suddenly, an idea occurred to me.

I ran at his back, jumping on it. Before I could even make contact, he spun around. He pulled down somehow, and then he was on top of me, straddling me. I could feel his chest against mine. I heard his heart once again, and I didn't think I'd ever tire of hearing it.

My own heart was beating pretty quickly. Actually, if I was older and human, I could have sworn that I was having a heart attack. I knew, however, that really, it was just my body's way of reacting to his body.

I looked up into his eyes, nearly melting.

"So, you got any more moves to show me?" I asked.

Then I realized that I had effectively ruined the mood. Humph.

He stood, holding out a hand to help me up.

"How'd you know what was coming?" I wondered.

"Well, the battle cry sort of gave you away," he chuckled.

"Would it have worked if I'd been more quiet?"

He thought for a moment. "Probably not. Now come on, you don't want to be late, do you?"

"Oh no, never for Her Majesty, Queen Tatiana," I muttered sarcastically.

Mostly, I was just excited because I didn't actually have to sneak out to hang out with people, for once.

"See you later, Dimka," I called out saucily as I left.

**TRSTRSTRS**

I arrived in the commons just in time for everyone to stop talking. I wasn't allowed to sit near Lissa, since she was with the royals, but I was only a few rows back.

It was close enough to keep an eye on her.

I saw Dimitri standing at attention by the wall, just as he had said he would.

I grinned at him and made a silly face, even though he had said not to do it. I knew he had to fight himself not to roll his eyes at me, and that made the moment even better. Even so, his guardian mask stayed tight on his face.

Finally, the royal procession came through. A few random royals who had gotten in good with the Queen came first. Next came Victor Dashkov, Priscilla Voda, and Prince Ivashkov.

I rolled my eyes as we were forced to stand when Queen Tatiana entered the room. She nodded to a few novices, stopped to say a few words to some non-royals, and then finally stopped to talk to Lissa completely.

"Princess Vasilisa Dragomir," she began. "We had heard that you had come back. We are most pleased to have the Dragomirs back." I didn't understand the "royal we" thing, and really, it irritated me too.

"The Dragomirs were once a powerful family. Dragomir means dragon, you know. They were valiant, fighting alongside their guardians, killing Strigoi. And your first name, it is just as powerful. Vasilisa has belonged to many great and powerful women throughout history. Vasilisa the Brave, Vasilisa the Beautiful. Yes, you are doubly named with power."

I felt a warm sense of pride and excitement come with Lissa.

"But," the Queen continued. "Clearly, names do not make a person, as you demonstrated when you ran away."

Now all Lissa felt was embarrassment, and I wanted to murder the Queen as she walked away.

I wondered how much time I would have to jump on her back before the guardians got to me. They would probably get to me before I even got to her. Sadly, I'd have to let her live.

We were forced to bow while the Queen stood at the front. I really didn't want to bow, but I really didn't want to be beheaded, either.

After the ceremony, which was really just an eating experience, I walked out quickly, looking for Lissa.

I found her and Natalie in one of the courtyards. I noticed Natalie was talking to her and hung back to hear what she was saying.

"She shouldn't have said that," Natalie insisted. "You must have had a good reason for running away."

Both Lissa and I were thinking that Natalie sucked at being sneaky.

"But my parents would be ashamed-" Lissa began.

"No they wouldn't. They would just be happy that you're happy. I mean, look at my Daddy. He doesn't care that I don't hang with that crowd."

I finally decided to butt in. "And that's why he should be king, not that bitch," I said.

Natalie looked up, shocked to find me here. I think she felt awkward being caught between the best friend dream team.

"Right, well, I'm going to go," Natalie said.

I concentrated on Lissa. She was beginning to get in an even darker place. "Liss, she was wrong," I told her.

"No, she wasn't," Lissa maintained. "Andre never would have run away!"

"You aren't Andre." I didn't know how many times I had told her this. So many times, I had lost track, for sure.

"Don't let this get you down," I told her. "Don't do anything you shouldn't." I worried about her cutting.

"It's going to happen again, isn't it?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"Not if you don't let it," I said. "You haven't?…" I tried to look at her wrists without being obvious.

"No, I haven't wanted to… I like the coasting thing."

I knew she did. She hated the royal lifestyle. She hated the backstabbing and lies and espionage. I didn't blame her. She wasn't made for it.

I heard an annoying high-pitched giggle, and immediately knew it was Mia.

"You must be _so _excited the Queen talked to you," Mia giggled some more.

I nearly snapped. I jumped up from my kneeling position, immediately tense and ready to spring if she tried anything.

"You're standing too close."

Mia flinched a little, probably remembering about Dawn Yarrow. "And hey, at the least the Queen knew her name. That's more than I can say for you and your wanna-be royal act."

She flinched once again, and I could see my words had really pained her. Why did she want to be royal so bad?

"Well, at least my parents love me!" she grinned viciously. "I mean, no one knows who your dad is. And your mom, she's out there living a life, glad to be away from you."

I flashed my fangs at her, but before I could say anything, Dimitri arrived.

"There you are, Rose," he said. "I'm supposed to take you back to your dorm."

"Oh, okay, Guardian Belikov. We were just swapping family stories. Care to hear Mia's? It's _fascinating._"

He gave me a look, taking my arm and pulling me away. When we were out of earshot, he stopped and asked, "Were you about to start a fight?"

I gave him a skeptical look. "Of course not. I don't start fights where anyone can see them."

"Oh Rose," he sighed.

"Hey, Christian!" I called. Dimitri tugged on my arm gently, but I ignored it.

Christian turned around. "Are you going to see Lissa?" I asked.

He blushed a little, and I had all the answer I needed.

"She feels sorry for you, you know," I said. "She thinks you're a freak, but she's too nice to say anything."

"But you're not too nice?" he asked snidely.

"No, I'm honest. So leave me alone."

I began to follow Dimitri. I stopped to look for a moment, and saw that Christian was still frozen in his place, a dark look consuming his eyes.

He did need to leave her alone. He wouldn't be any good for her.


	7. Chapter 7

That night, I tossed and turned. I couldn't get to sleep. And then I felt that something was wrong. Something was wrong with Lissa, terribly wrong.

I got out of bed, rapidly throwing on clothing. I searched for shoes, finally finding a pair of flip-flops that had been shoved under the bed.

I rushed out of the room, nervous and near panicking.

The dorm matron got up, seeing me. It was fine. I just needed to make sure Lissa was okay. My goal tonight was not to sneak out.

"Why are you out of bed?" she asked sharply.

She looked tired, and really I didn't blame her. I wondered how crazy her sleep schedule was.

"There's something wrong with Princess Dragomir," I said.

She narrowed her eyes at me, trying to determine if I was telling the truth.

"I'm serious! Please, just let me go see her!"

"Fine," I said. "If you don't believe me, can you call Guardian Belikov?"

She studied me again before pulling out a cell phone. She whispered into the phone, I hoped it was Dimitri and not Kirova.

A few minutes later, a ruffled looking Dimitri arrived. "What's wrong Rose?" he asked, his dark eyes sweeping over me to check for injuries. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I said. "But Lissa isn't."

"Let's take her to the Princess," he told the dorm matron. "When it comes to Vasilisa, Miss Hathaway is completely serious."

I nodded. The dorm matron just shrugged, as if to say, _maybe a guardian knows better._

I went in, and what I saw shocked and disturbed me on more than one level.

Lissa was crying, covered in blood.

Her wrists were bleeding. She had cut.

I began to rinse off her wrists, finding some bandages. They had fairies on them, but they would have to do.

A knock sounded on the door. "Just a sec!" I called.

I quickly handed her my hoodie, and just as she had finished putting it on, Dimitri and the dorm matron walked in.

"What happened?" Dimitri asked, shocked.

"I came back, and it- it was in the middle of the floor… like it had exploded."

"What was?" the dorm matron asked.

"The rabbit," Lissa stammered, pointing to the trashcan.

I went to look, unable to stop myself.

I didn't know how she knew it was a rabbit. It was all blood and guts, everything red. There was no white fur to be seen.

"How do they keep doing this?" the matron wailed. "These dorms are supposed to be secure!"

Dimitri, ever the calm one, just asked, "Do you have any idea who could have done this, Princess?"

She tearfully handed us a blood-stained note.

_I know what you are. If you aren't careful, you'll end up like this rabbit._

I gasped, horrified. Dimitri's face became stone-like. The matron just blanched, "I'm getting Ellen!"

It took me a moment to remember that Kirova's first name was Ellen.

I began to wash off Lissa's face.

"Tell her that we'll be in the clinic," he said. I helped him support Lissa all the way to the clinic, where Doctor Olendzki immediately began to fret.

"She just needs to rest," Dimitri reassured her. "She's had a traumatic night."

Soon enough, the cavalry arrived.

Kirova forced Dimitri to take me back to my dorm.

As we were walking back, Dimitri gave me a guilty look. "I'm sorry, Rose," he said.

I looked at him, only a little upset with him. I knew it wasn't ultimately his decision. I also knew that he would have let me stay if it had been his decision; he knew how I felt about my friendship with Lissa. Only the two of them knew how far I would go for her. I don't think even Lissa knew the full extent of it, either.

"It's alright, Dimitri," I forgave him I hoped I could convey my thoughts with just those words.

He gave me a slight smile, just a mere upturning of the corner of his lips.

I smiled half-heartedly back, for once not plagued by my secret feelings for him. No, instead I was plagued by worry for Lissa.

Did it have anything to do with the raven? And Ms. Karp?

I once again briefly entertained the idea that Mia had done it. I dismissed it, once again. Mia may have been hostile, but she used words. Mason had once told me that she didn't even do dissections on biology.

Who could it be?

**TRSTRSTRS**

The next day, there were only a few whispers about the rabbit. There were even more whispers about why Lissa had been taken to the clinic in the middle of the night.

One of the most popular rumors, as usual, was that she was pregnant.

I tried to dispel any rumors when I heard them mentioned in my presence.

By lunch period, Lissa wasn't getting anymore strange looks; I was.

I tried to figure out what was going on, but every time I would walk by, the whispers stopped.

They were scared of me, for some reason.

In Animal Behavior, Mia took one look at me and giggled.

Whatever the rumors were, she had started them. If I had to guess, sometime during the morning. Maybe even in one of my classes.

In Moroi Culture, one guy made an obscene comment. I promptly told him what he could do with his comment.

"But come on, Rose!" he called, leering. "I _bleed_ for you!" He had an obnoxious grin on his face, and I barely held myself back from wiping it off.

I turned away, my nose in the air. When I looked at Lissa, I asked, "Do you know what he's talking about?"

She shook her head, just as confused as I was.

Christian walked by us, and noticed us staring.

"Hey, Princess," he said coolly.

Lissa was confused and a little hurt by his behavior.

"So, Fire Boy," I began. "Do you know what they're saying about me?"

Christian was never noticed, so really, he probably had heard something while lurking in the shadows.

"Fire Boy?" he questioned. "You used fire too, you know."

"I don't use it to set people alight," I shot back. "Anyway, do you know what they're saying?"

He looked to be considering whether he would tell me. "Princess Vasilisa and her Lady-In-Waiting Rosemarie need something from," he paused for dramatic effect, "Me?"

I rolled my eyes, while Lissa felt even more confused about his change in opinion of her.

"Yes," I replied through gritted teeth.

"Well, they center around you and Jesse," he explained.

Realization hit me. "Oh, I get it! He said we had sex?"

While it didn't bug me too much, I would hate for the rumors to get back to Dimitri.

"Not just that," he said, clearly ramping up for more. "You and Ralf, too."

"What?" I asked, offended. I would never even get close to Ralf. I would rather let the Moroi species die if it depended on me and Ralf getting it on. "I wouldn't go near him with a ten foot pole!"

"There's more!" Christian was enjoying this way too much.

"What, did I sleep with the whole basketball team?" Never mind the fact that we didn't have a basketball team.

"They said that you let them drink your blood," he explained.

"What?" This time, I shouted it. Everyone in class turned to look at me. I bit my lip, and made my voice quieter. "But I'm a Moroi!"

"They said it didn't stop you from enjoying their endorphins," he said.

I wanted to push Christian away, throw him to the ground, and maybe knock him out. I was tired of him.

Why would they say that I was a blood whore?

I mean, it was kinky and dirty for dhampirs to give blood during sex, but if a Moroi did it, it was practically cannibalism. Sick on the part of the Moroi who did it, not as sick on the part of the one who took it.

This could ruin my reputation. This could ruin my chances for graduation, if my mother heard wind of it.

It could ruin my chances with Dimitri.

**TRSTRSTRS**

After school, I showed up to my appointment with Dimitri ready to spar.

I needed to blow off some steam.

Dimitri was there, but he was not giving me any disgusted looks. I guessed he hadn't heard the rumors, and I was glad.

"Why don't you warm up with your laps?" he asked.

I nodded. I didn't have the energy to argue about how much I hated laps.

After my laps, he sent me on my way to the punching bag.

During those moments, I imagined Jesse and Ralf's faces on it.

"Rose, Rose!" Dimitri said. I broke out of my angry trance.

"What?" I asked. "Was my form wrong?"

He shook his head. "No, your knuckles are bleeding," he cursed in Russian.

"Here," he said. He gently grabbed my left hand and led me towards a storage closet. He grabbed a white box, a few bottles, and sat us both down on the gym floor.

He poured some peroxide over my knuckles, and I hissed at the pain.

"We don't want you to get infected, now do we?" he asked. He then bandaged them up, massaging my hands. He rubbed some sort of balm over the chapped sections.

"If I keep training, am I going to look like the guardians?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, they all look leathery and stuff. Guardian Petrov, all the guardian women, really. Is this the beginning of that?"

"It won't happen to you," he said a little huskily. "You're too-" _Sexy? Goddess-like? Scorching hot? _My mind supplied.

He seemed to struggle with what to say, and finally gave up. "It won't happen to you."

I looked at him. His eyes were darker than normal, and his hand seemed to be twitching.

I wished more than ever that I could just kiss him No boy had ever been so frustratingly tempting to me before. Maybe it was because Dimitri wasn't a boy, but a man.

I blew a frustrated puff out, and a few strands of hair that had fallen out of my ponytail blew as if in a breeze.

Dimitri gently grabbed onto a piece of my hair, twirling it around his finger. My breath hitched in my throat, my heart frozen. Oh, how I wanted to close the distance between us.

He seemed to come out of his trance when one of my own hands had started to reach towards his own hair.

"Come on," he said. He gracefully stood up, holding out the hand that had been touching my hair.

It was then that I knew that maybe Dimitri _did _have the same feelings as me.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"You're going to your dorm, then you're going to meet me at the library."

_More homework_, I sighed.

If I got to hang out with Dimitri, then I could deal with it.

I showered and dressed in the same outfit I had worn during school. I grabbed my backpack, my pre-calc book, and _The Legend of Sleepy Hollow_, which we were currently reading in Colonial Lit. At last minute, I grabbed my Russian book, remembering that we had to do some exercises from it.

I met Dimitri in front of the library.

As we walked in, I heard some snickers from a couple of underclassmen who were hanging out on the couches. I wished I knew the spell Christian had used on Ralf at that moment.

I ignored them, and I wondered if Dimitri had even heard them.

I looked up to read his expression, only to see his jaw tight and clenched.

Maybe he had heard them, after all.

We went to our normal table, and I pulled out my pre-calc book.

He helped me through my homework until it was all finished. Every last math problem, Russian exercise, the whole of _Sleepy Hollow_, and even helped me research fire magic a little.

Afterwards, I briefly looked up St. Vladimir and his guardian, Anna. The Priest at church hadn't been able to tell me much about them when I had gone to the service the first weekend I'd been back.

I didn't find much on them, besides the usual, "He was so filled with spirit" and "Shadow-kissed Anna was his guardian."

Weren't libraries supposed to be helpful? This one hadn't been much help to me. This was why I never stepped foot in libraries!

As Dimitri walked me back to my dorm, I finally cracked.

"Have you heard the rumors?" I croaked.

He looked at me appraisingly. "Yes, I have. But I don't believe them."

"You don't?" I asked, shocked.

"I know how the St. Vladimir's rumor mill works, Rose," he explained. "Besides, I know you. I know your character. You would never do that."

"Thanks," I smiled at him, too choked up with happiness to really say anything else.

He stopped, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. "If you want me to handle the situation, I will," he told me.

"How would you do that?" I asked.

He looked down. "I could talk to Headmistress Kirova, and we could attempt to find the perpetrators."

I sighed, "That's like letting them win, Comrade."

His eyes were thoughtful. "You could always ask your mother for advice, too."

"I don't think she even knew I was gone," I told him bitterly.

"I'm sure your mother cares for you immensely, Rose." His face was earnest, and he actually believed what he was saying. I, however, knew the truth.

"She sure doesn't act like it. She dropped me off at the Academy as soon as I was old enough."

He squeezed my shoulder. "She does work a lot," he excused her.

"So?" I asked. Then, grudgingly, I admitted, "I guess it would be difficult to raise me alone, while working all the time. Not like anyone knows my dad, either."

He nodded. "Having a dad isn't all it's made out to be, either."

I raised my eyebrows at him.

"I knew my father," he explained.

"Wow, really?" I asked, shocked. Hardly any dhampirs knew their dads.

"Yes, well, he liked my mother." He didn't say 'liked' like it was a good thing. "All my siblings are his."

"Wow," I said again. "So what happened?"

"What?" he asked, confused.

"You made it sound like you didn't like your father," I told him.

"You picked up on that, huh?"

I nodded.

"Well, he wasn't very nice, that's for sure," he seemed lost in another world.

"Did he do like-" I hesitated. "Blood whore things?"

He shook his head. "More like beating her up kind of things."

"And she just took it?" I asked, shocked.

"Yes. But, I didn't," he said. He smiled.

"Please, please tell me you beat him up!" I said. I couldn't help that I was rather prone to violence.

"I did," he said proudly.

"How old were you?"

"Thirteen," he said absent-mindedly.

"Thirteen?" I gasped.

He nodded. "I was almost taller than him, and already a lot stronger."

Dhampirs _were _a lot stronger than Moroi, just by nature. That wasn't too surprising.

"We never heard from him again," he noted.

"He didn't have a guardian?" I asked.

"He did," Dimitri disagreed. "He was royal. His guardian just didn't… feel the need to step in."

I wouldn't have, either, if I was a guardian to someone like that. Hell, I would have asked to be reassigned, or possibly beat him up before Dimitri had gotten to it.

"Wow," I whispered. "You must be a god."

"What?" he asked.

"Uh, nothing," I said.

"Okay," he said. "It's getting light out. Let's get you back to your dorm."

"Okay," I said back.

**TRSTRSTRS**

A few days later, everyone was talking about the upcoming dance. The same upcoming dance that I would probably not be allowed to attend.

Really, I'd never attended school dances before, anyway.

Still, going to the school dance meant sneaking out to go to some great after parties. That was what Lissa and I had always done.

"Rose," Lissa said at lunch.

I looked at her, sensing her worry through the bond. "What?"

"These rumors need to stop."

"How?" I asked.

"I'll tell everyone," she said. I could tell this wasn't the first time she'd considered it.

"Liss, you can't do that! It's bad for you!"

"We can't let Mia get away with this!"

"Mia?" I asked, confused.

"Did you really think that Jesse and Ralf came up with the rumors?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Well…" I said, considering. It had been a long time to wait to release the rumors. And Jesse really had been scared of Dimitri. "That does make sense," I told her.

She nodded. "Of course it does."

I chuckled a little at her statement. Lissa always had been so much more logical than I could ever dream to be.

"Still," I bit my lip. "You shouldn't tell anyone any of that," I said.

"But you don't deserve what they're saying about you," she asserted, her eyes wide and upset.

"It isn't that big a deal," I fudged. In truth, I had cried two nights before when the rumors had reached their peak. They would probably never go away, either. Once a blood whore, always a blood whore.

"I'll take care of everything," she said.

**TRSTRSTRS**

True to her word, Lissa slowly made her way through the list of royals, compelling every single one of them into finally believing the truth.

She didn't even bother to hide it sometimes. Sometimes she would do it while I was right next to her. I tried to chastise her, discourage her, but she was on a crusade. She'd told me that I had spent so much time trying to protecting her, it was only fair that she do the same. At this point, it was useless to argue with her.

Lissa was quickly gaining popularity. Her compulsion was good, but it didn't hurt that she was already naturally likeable.

She even got invited to go to the mall with Natalie and Victor. Well, it wasn't that difficult, since she'd already been buddying up to Natalie. She did, however, manage to convince Natalie to ask if I could go as well.

"I don't know if Kirova will let me go," I said unsurely.

"But she _has _to, Rose," Lissa said. "You've been behaving really well, too, as far as she knows."

Lissa thought I had been running amok without getting caught. She was sort of right, because most of the time I was running amok with Dimitri.

"That is true," I mused.

"Besides," she grinned. "No one can deny Uncle Victor."

That was true. He was too sick and close to death to really deny him any wishes.

"And if I go to the mall, she'll have to let me go to the dance!" I crowed excitedly.

Lissa and I immediately began to plan for the trip to the mall, what we would wear, and what stores we were looking forward to visiting.

I hadn't been to Missoula in over two years. I was majorly stoked.

**TRSTRSTRS**

I met Dimitri in the gym after school the day we were supposed to go to the mall.

"Rose, we won't be training today," he said.

I frowned. "Why not?"

"We'll be awake for a good portion of the night, since malls operate on human hours," he explained.

That made sense. "Why don't you take a nap before we leave?" he asked.

"Alright," I said. "See you later, Comrade."

He grinned at me.

**TRSTRSTRS**

I cursed as I realized that I was completely out of my favorite lip gloss. I'd been running low for a while, but I hadn't had a chance to get any more.

I applied a light layer of makeup and rooted through my wardrobe for a cute outfit. I finally decided on a pair of dark green skinny cargo jeans and a brown hoodie. I didn't really have a ton.

I would definitely need to pick up more clothes at the mall.

I met Dimitri where they kept the cars. Lissa, Camille, and Natalie were already there, along with Victor and his guardians. Guardian Alto was there, too.

I smiled at Dimitri, who just motioned for me to get in the van. "You're late, Rose," he said.

I rolled my eyes. "Sorry. It takes _time _to look this good," I joked.

He only shook his head as he sat next to me. On the other side of him was Guardian Speridon. Lissa, Camille and Natalie were in the bench seat ahead of us, while Victor and Guardian Alto were in the front seats.

I questioned him about Guardian Alto, who was just a school guardian, being present.

"He's here because the Princess and Camille don't have sanctioned guardians yet. Camille would normally be under the protection of her family guardians, but since she's at school, they aren't available."

I nodded my head in acceptance. "And you're here because you are my sanctioned guardian," I noted.

He agreed.

"It's odd that you have a guardian and the princess doesn't," Speridon stated.

I kind of agreed. Usually, only royals got guardians. It was rare for a common Moroi, such as myself, to have such a renowned guardian. It was even more rare for an underage common Moroi to even have a guardian. How had Dimitri been assigned to me?

Maybe whomever had bribed for my place at school had also bribed the council to get me a guardian. Hey, I wasn't going to complain. If it wasn't for whomever was out there helping me out, I would never have met Dimitri.

Lissa and Camille began to chatter about something or another, but I paid no attention. I was too busy watching Dimitri.

He had a strange look on his face. I couldn't place what it meant. It looked like he was at war with some thought.

I was aching to grab his hand. It was so close. I could even do it sneakily.

I wouldn't allow myself to. Dimitri might not appreciate it. I knew he wouldn't appreciate it.

When we got to the mall, Lissa practically turned into a tornado of energy, eager to explore every shop and buy every accessory and dress.

Luckily for her, it appeared that her account had been sorted out. Unluckily for me, my mother never provided an allowance.

Lissa didn't mind buying me things. I felt guilty for allowing her to do so, but I really did need some more clothes.

I think we actually went into every store, even the ones that we didn't need anything from (such as Dolce Italian Tableware).

"Seriously, Liss, why are we even in here?" I asked as she stared, enamored at a spoon.

"Well… we might need some tableware someday," she told me.

I recognized the look on her face. It was one that said she had spent too long without shopping, and had cracked when finally presented with the opportunity.

She ended up buying the spoon.

She dragged me down the corridor and into Victoria's Secret soon after. "You could get something from their new line of running shorts," she explained.

I gave her a look. "You realize those aren't actually for running?"

She gave me a wide-eyed look. "What?" she asked. "But they're cute _and _practical!"

I finally caved, allowing her to buy me a pair of black hotshorts. As much as I hated to admit it, they were really cute. The waistband was a sparkly champagne color.

"And look at this lingerie set!" she ran over to a display of baby doll nightgowns. She found a dark red one. "It would look so good on you!"

It would look good on me, I realized. However, I wouldn't ever get an opportunity to wear it.

As if reading my mind, she said, "You could wear it in the future," wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

I scoffed disgustedly. "That is one of the most sexual things I have ever heard you say," I told her.

She laughed and I noticed that Dimitri was across the store, purchasing something.

What could he possibly be buying? At Victoria's Secret?

_Maybe he's just buying some lotion or soap_, I told myself.

I couldn't imagine allowing anyone but Dimitri to see me in the lingerie that Lissa was holding up.

"I see the look in your eyes," Lissa said. "I'm buying it!"

"No!" I shouted. Dimitri turned to look at us, and I immediately blushed. I lowered my voice. "I don't have any use for it, Lissa."

Dimitri was walking hurriedly towards us.

"You can just wear it to bed to feel pretty," she said. "I'm buying it and that's final."

Dimitri finally made it to us. "Everything alright, Rose? Princess?"

"Everything is perfectly fine, Guardian Belikov," Lissa said. "I'm just trying to talk some sense into Rose."

He looked back and forth between us, confusion clear on his features.

Finally, his eyes landed on the baby doll.

I blushed once again, and he began to do the same.

I had never seen Dimitri so unguarded in his feelings. He must have been taken by surprise. I knew I was.

"Uh," he stuttered. Dimitri stuttering?

"It's the last one, and in your size, Rose," Lissa told me. "I think it would look good on you."

I didn't know it was possible for my cheeks to grow any redder. I had never blushed before I had met Dimitri, and here I was, about to burst a blood vessel!

I looked at Dimitri. He was swallowing thickly.

Why, oh, why, Lissa?

"I'm not taking no for an answer," she repeated.

Before I could stop her, she ran to the check out counter to pay for the shorts and baby doll nightgown.

Now it was just Dimitri and I. We were standing there, both in shock and slightly traumatized. The other group of Moroi and guardians appeared outside of the store, bringing me out of my frozen state.

"I guess it's time for lunch," I stated.

Dimitri nodded, still shocked.

I didn't understand why he was so thrown by the lingerie. Perhaps he imagined me too young for anyone to have sex with. Perhaps he was just flashing back to that night in the lounge with Jesse. Or maybe, just maybe, he was picturing me in that lingerie.

**Hey, guys! So I think Rose may finally be coming to her senses regarding Dimitri, yes? An outtake from Dimitri's POV in this story will be out soon. It may or may not include multiple outtakes as the story goes on, but it will be marked as complete. Tell me what you thought of the chapter!**


	8. Chapter 8

That revelation had the power to shake up my world. The thought of Dimitri looking at me in that baby doll didn't disturb me in the least. In fact, it made me blush a little.

Instead of giving the idea more thought, I banished it to the back of my mind; I had more shopping to do.

We ended up eating at Red Robin.

I got sat between Lissa and Camille. I didn't like Camille at all, but at least she was being civil. Though, her niceness was mainly due to Lissa's compulsion. Whatever.

Two out of three of the guardians sat at our table with us. It was their lucky day; they got to eat lunch with the Moroi. How very exciting.

The unlucky guardian, Speridon, was stuck at a bench outside of the restaurant.

I didn't think it was likely to be attacked by any Strigoi today. It was day time. Bad things don't happen in the day.

Both Dimitri and Guardian Alto sat with us. Dimitri was sat directly across from me at the table, while Guardian Alto was sat next to Victor.

I'd never been much inclined to like Guardian Alto. He always looked as if he had smelled something bad.

Lucky Victor, eh?

I had a hard time deciding what I wanted to eat. Everything sounded good. Who was paying for my meal, anyway?

When I found out that St. Vladimir's was actually funding our lunch, I ordered the most expensive thing on the menu. I also got a Monster sized chocolate shake and a Mountain High Mudd Pie for dessert.

Dimitri, Guardian Alto, Victor, and Camille were staring at me in wonder.

"What?" I asked. "Haven't you ever seen a girl eat?" I licked a bit of stray whipped cream from my lips.

"I don't think they've ever seen a Moroi eat like you," Lissa giggled.

I shrugged. "You guys should take advantage of the free meal!"

I caught Camille rolling her eyes in my peripheral vision.

Dimitri's hand reached up to his nose. "You have some whipped cream, right there," he told me.

I attempted to reach my tongue up to lick it, but was unsuccessful.

"God, it's like watching a dog," Guardian Alto gaped, eyes wide.

Dimitri shot him a look of distaste and I was momentarily excited that he had sort of defended my honor.

Finally, I just gave up and wiped it off with my finger. I then took my finger into my mouth, slowly licking off the whipped cream.

Mmm, that was tasty.

I noticed that they were all staring at me again. "What?" I asked.

After I finally finished my meal, Guardian Alto handed the waitress a credit card that must have belonged to the school.

"So, how much did I set ole Kirova back?" I asked eagerly.

Dimitri gave me a look that clearly said, _One does not ask such things._

Lissa's look said the same thing.

After the bill was settled, we broke into small groups again.

Lissa dragged me to Dillards. "We need to find dresses for the dance!" she nearly yelled.

We did eventually find dresses. Lissa's was a pale pink sheath that would complement her coloring wonderfully.

Mine, however, was a little black dress. I tried it on in the dressing room before stepping out to model for Lissa. She ooh'd and ahh'd, clapping excitedly.

This was a dress that ended violence. This was a dress that started religions.

The dress managed some major clinging action. I knew that on the typical Moroi chest, this dress would fall flat. However, my slightly larger than average chest managed to hold it up dutifully.

I saw Dimitri lurking in a corner nearby, looking as if he wasn't paying attention to us. I didn't know how guardians managed it, to be honest. How did they look like they were looking at everything and nothing at the same time?

I smiled at Dimitri, twirling in the dress to show it to him.

He smiled the barest amount at me before turning away to place the shirt he had been "thinking about buying" back on the rack.

I soon emerged from the dressing room, telling Lissa that I couldn't let her buy the dress.

"But Rose," she whined. "It's your dress. It's like it was made for you."

It _was_ my dress.

I'd already let her buy me those shorts, that lingerie, and a few other things along the way, though. "Liss, you can't waste all your inheritance on me!"

She rolled her eyes. "I swear, Rose. Your clothing tastes have gotten so boring lately!"

"No, they haven't," I argued.

She eyed my bags that contained two thermals and a plain t-shirt.

"Oh, alright," I conceded.

"Yay! I knew this dress would be perfect for you!"

I couldn't deny her, especially when she was my sister in all the ways that mattered. She was really the only one I had left.

On the way out of the mall, we stopped by a jewelry shop. Lissa pulled me over to a rose necklace.

Normally, I didn't like rose stuff. Lissa knew that, which was why she often felt inclined to buy them for me. However, even I had to admit that the necklace was gorgeous.

That is, until we saw the price.

"Oh look," I teased. "Even you have limits."

Lissa giggled and we looked over to see Victor placing a bracelet on Natalie's wrist. I hoped it was extra expensive to make up for his ignoring her on the ride here. Maybe that would shut the girl up.

On the way back, I sat next to Dimitri again.

Everyone fell asleep within twenty minutes, and I was on my way there, as well.

I kept nodding off, my head jerking every few minutes.

"You can lean your head on my shoulder if you want," Dimitri told me.

His shoulder probably was very comfortable. I allowed myself to lean on him. He was warm. That was nice.

"Did you see the dress?" I asked him quietly.

I didn't want anyone else to hear our conversation. The only ones awake were Victor and the guardians, but I would rather not have them think anything was going on between me and Dimitri.

He glanced down at me and gave me the barest of smiles. "Yes, I did."

"Will I endanger my reputation if I wear it?" I jokingly asked.

"You'll endanger the school," he answered. I looked at him, smiled, and fell asleep. I was content.

**TRSTRSTRS**

When I woke up, we were arriving at school. I was covered by Dimitri's duster, which smelled like his aftershave. I snuggled into it for another moment before Dimitri shook me gently. "We're back at school, Rose."

I smiled at him. He was so beautiful.

"Alright!" We all got out of the van and gathered our shopping bags.

Everything seemed so perfect! Lissa was quieting the rumors (no matter how detrimental it was to her, I appreciated the gesture), Dimitri seemed to like me, and I had a gorgeous dress to wear to the dance that I would probably be allowed to attend.

I hopped up on bench after bench, feeling like I might fly away.

That is, until my foot fell through one of them.

I heard a sickening crunch and felt a nauseating pain in my ankle.

Seconds later, Dimitri was by my side.

I was beginning to black out from the pain, but I could see snapshots of his worried face.

He broke apart the wood from my ankle and then finally, I passed out.

**TRSTRSTRS**

I woke up to blinding white.

Oh no. I recognized this place.

The clinic.

"You're awake," a voice said.

I turned to see Dimitri sitting in an uncomfortable looking chair right next to the bed.

"What happened?" I asked, still a little dazed.

"The bench was rotted," Dimitri explained. "I had to carry you in from the bench."

I'd missed being in Dimitri's arms?

Dr. Olendzki came in. "I thought I heard voices in here. How are you feeling, Rose?"

"Pretty good, actually," I told her. I leaned down to examine my ankle. There was only a red line present. "I thought I had broken it or something."

"By the way you were screaming when Guardian Belikov carried you in here, I thought it had been amputated," she joked. "You'll just need to rest for an hour and then I'll discharge you, okay?"

I nodded, and she left us alone again.

"Was I really screaming?" I asked Dimitri.

He nodded. "Bloody murder. You kept screaming for Lissa, too."

"How embarrassing," I muttered, fighting a blush.

"She was the only one who could calm you down. After she visited, you were as quiet as could be."

"Well I'm glad it isn't broken," I said. "I'd hate to get behind in training."

"You mentioned that a few times," he laughed. He then pulled out a box. "You've got some presents."

"What?" I asked. The box looked like it contained jewelry.

"This is from Prince Victor."

"For what?" I asked, shocked. Why would he buy me anything?

"Well, originally, it was a 'congratulations on your release from probation' gift. After what happened, it became a 'get well soon' gift."

I nodded blankly, opening up the box.

Inside was the rose necklace.

"Woah. That's some get well present," I said. I looked at the note attached, which read:

_Rosemarie,_

_You lead a truly charmed life. Get well soon._

_Prince Victor_

"You should probably thank him," Dimitri suggested.

"Yeah, I definitely need to," I agreed thoughtfully. I knew that a prince would have tons of money, but why would Victor blow that much of it on _me_?

"You did say presents, right?" I asked eagerly.

He laughed at me. "Yes," he began to pull a bag out of his duster. "This is from me."

It was a small Victoria's Secret bag. I opened it up.

It was my favorite lip gloss.

I'd been complaining about running low on my lip gloss for a few weeks now, but I hadn't thought Dimitri had been paying attention.

"Thank you!" I said, leaping off my bed and into his arms.

I heard a small "oomph" come from him before he put his arms around me, chuckling.

I pulled away, still smiling. "Is that a 'congratulations on getting off probation' present as well?" I asked.

"No," he said. He looked down for a second before his eyes came up to meet mine. "I just thought it would make you happy."

He'd gotten me a gift just to make me happy? Be still my beating heart!

I hugged him again. I felt his chest vibrating with laughter. "Thank you," I told him, pulling away once again. All I wanted was to be able to thank him with a kiss.

I knew I couldn't. He was always taken off guard when I hugged him. I still didn't even know for sure if he felt the same way about me.

He could have just wanted his charge to be happy.

I bit my lip, looking at him.

He was looking back at me, some look I couldn't decipher in his eyes.

I finally got out of his lap and into my bed. I applied some of the lip gloss. The tingling mint brought a smile to my face.

"Where's Lissa, anyway?" I asked him.

He shrugged and I checked the bond.

Immediately, I knew something was wrong.

Blood.

At first, I thought it belonged to another dead animal. Then I realized, it was Lissa's.

She was bringing a razor to her wrist, slashing it. So much blood.

This brought a smile to her face. She giggled woozily.

All her life, she had taken blood. From the feeders, from random humans we'd compelled. She thought, maybe if she sacrificed some of the precious Dragomir blood that everyone obsessed over, it would make up for everything.

God.

When the rumors had started, I had felt sad. I had cried. I had been miserable.

This was different. The dark thoughts wouldn't leave her. They swirled around her mind, as if they were a refrain in a song. As if to the beat of a drum, she could hear all the things that had been building up.

_Still alive._

_Blood whore._

_Is that all that a precious Dragomir can afford?_

_Names do not make the person._

_Andre would never have run away._

_You're weak._

_Still alive. Still alive. Still alive._

The weight of the thoughts was suffocating. This was what depression felt like. This, I realized, was what madness was.

Trapped in her head, I attempted to break out. I had to save her. I had to tell Dimitri. Dimitri would save her.

Dimitri was the thought that finally freed me of her.

I came back into my own body, gasping.

"Lissa- you have to help Lissa!" I told him.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Lissa. She's in the church attic!" I shouted. "You've got to help her. She's in danger!"

I hated to rat on her, but her life was on the line.

The cuts she'd made were deeper than ever. She could die, and it would be my fault.

He immediately sprang into guardian mode. It didn't matter that she wasn't his charge.

What mattered was preserving Moroi life, especially the last one in her line.

Even as she was on her way to her death, one of the main concerns was for the extinction of the royal line.

Of course, what mattered to me was that my best friend stay alive.

Fifteen minutes later, they carried her in on a stretcher.

She was barely awake.

She was immediately taken to another room. I watched through the bond as they forced liquids and blood into her too pale body.

Then, she passed out. I was forced back into myself.

I got up, running to hug Dimitri, who was standing outside my door.

I realized I was crying, but didn't care if Dimitri saw.

He didn't hesitate to encircle his arms around me, encasing me in his warmth and comfort. "Thank you so much," I cried. "I don't know what I'd do if she died!"

He rubbed my back. "She'll be okay," he whispered. "Now she'll just need you to be strong for her."

I nodded, still feeling nauseous from anxiety. To calm myself, I listened to the steady beat of his heart.

"I think she's stable now," he said. "If you want to wait for her to wake up."

"You'd really let me do that?" I asked, shocked. Usually, people just shooed me from the room when something happened with Lissa.

"You did help us find her in time," he reasoned.

I nodded and he guided me towards her room.

I stood in the doorway for a moment to observe her.

Her body was so frail looking. Her skin was chalky, from blood loss, I assumed. Her hair was splayed out on the pillow. Her face was as colorless as the rest of her skin. There was an IV running into her arm. Even passed out, she looked like she was in immense pain.

For once, she didn't look like an angel. Instead, she looked someone who had been chewed up and spit out by life.

It was a sight I never wanted to see again.

I waited by her bedside for hours. Sometimes, Dimitri would stand next to me. Most of the time, it was just me and Lissa.

When I felt her stirring awake through the bond, I sat a little straighter, scooting to the edge of my seat.

"Rose?" she asked groggily.

"Hi Liss," I said cautiously.

"Where am I?" she asked.

Now that she was awake, her emotions were once again in turmoil. It was nothing like the emotions I felt coming from her when she had been in the church attic, though.

"The clinic," I told her.

She looked down at her bandaged wrists. Repulsion swept through her, quickly followed by disappointment. Her disappointment in herself was quickly washed away by anger. Anger at me.

"Liss?" I asked.

"You told them where I was!" she accused. "You were the only one who knew about this!"

"I had to tell them," I defended. "You would have died otherwise!"

"Maybe I wanted to die!" she yelled.

"Don't say that, Liss," I said fervently.

"Get out! Get out! I never want to speak to you again!" she shrieked.

It was as if a silver stake had pierced my heart. Lissa was my best friend. My only true family. Now she hated me as much as my mother did.

"Fine," I whispered, walking away.

As I walked out of the room, Dimitri joined me. "Is everything alright, Rose?" he asked. I looked up at him, still a little numb from Lissa's rejection. His face was serious, but caring.

Dimitri still cared about me, at least. It seemed that he was my only true friend.

How pathetic. My only friend was my twenty-four year old guardian, whom I had a crush on.

I could tell him. _Maybe I should tell him everything_, I reasoned with myself. I should tell him.

Instead of telling him straight away, I just said, "Not really."

He stopped walking for a moment. "You've both been excused from classes today," he told me.

I nodded absentmindedly.

"You can come and hang out in my room, if you'd like," he suggested.

What? Was Dimitri inviting me up to his room? Again?

This time it wasn't for a meal. I wasn't uninvited. It was just to sit around as friends. Maybe sleep.

"Okay," I agreed.

His face broke out into a smile.

He led me across campus to his room, even though I had already been there on numerous occasions. We didn't come across any guardians as we walked through the lobby and up the stairs.

It was a little strange, really. Whenever I'd been here, no one had ever run into me. This place should have been crawling with guardians, but I guess they were all busy worker bees.

He unlocked the door and motioned for me to go inside. "Ladies first," he quipped.

Had it been anyone else, I would have set their hair on fire. When Dimitri said it, I just felt a small flutter in my chest.

This man was different from the rest. He'd made me blush, giggle, and more responsible. I didn't know how he did it, but I certainly didn't want him to share his secrets with anyone else, either. Rose Hathaway did not blush. She did not giggle. She did not think before she spoke.

I looked at him as he walked in, studying him.

His hair was in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. He was wearing the standard guardian black and white, along with that ridiculous duster. His head nearly touched the ceiling. His eyes were examining me, too.

Finally, I spoke. "Thanks for everything, Comrade."

"It isn't a problem, Roz- Rose," he stuttered. What had he begun to say? It sounded like my name, but different.

I let it go for the moment, noting to myself to add it to my list of things Dimitri related that I needed to examine later.

I walked over to his bookcase, once again remembering how Lissa had so easily thrown me away. I banished her from my mind, wishing that we didn't still have the psychic link connecting us.

"So, why westerns?" I asked.

He walked over to me, standing deliciously close. "Westerns," he began, picking up a copy _True Grit_. "Westerns are full of adventure."

"Because you don't have enough of that fighting Strigoi?"

He rolled his eyes lightly. "They're full of outlaws and sheriffs. There aren't many rules, and the outlaws don't hesitate to break the ones that are present. They also always get the girl," he joked.

Except I didn't think he was joking. He had a serious look in his eyes. I realized that as dedicated as Dimitri was to his job, he really did crave that sort of life. I felt immensely guilty. I was what was keeping him from his family. I was what kept him from a free life. If he wasn't my guardian, maybe he would be out there, living off the land. Away from the Moroi. Away from rules and regulations and societal standards.

"You just wish you were an outlaw," I teased.

"You caught me red handed," he said, smiling.

He put _True Grit _back on the bookshelf. "Are you tired?" he asked.

Now that he mentioned it, I was exhausted. I hadn't slept since before shopping, which had only been for about an hour. Before that, I hadn't slept since before school. Basically, I hadn't slept in twenty-three hours.

I also hadn't had blood in almost twenty-four hours. Normally, when I realized this, I would go to the feeders. However, I didn't want to leave Dimitri's side until I had to.

"Yeah," I said.

"You can sleep on my bed, if you'd like," he told me.

"Aren't you tired?" I asked.

"Yes, but I can sleep on my chair," he explained.

"What?" I looked at him. "Why would you do that?" I asked.

"That's the gentlemanly thing to do," he said. "It isn't proper for me to sleep in the same bed as you."

I rolled my eyes. "Come on, Comrade. That isn't fair for you. I promise I won't take advantage of you."

He chuckled. "I couldn't do that, Rose. You're my charge."

"Well it's your bed," I argued.

"It isn't-"

"Proper," I finished for him. "Please?" I asked, deciding to guilt him into it. "I don't want to sleep alone right now," I pouted a little and batted my eyes.

I could see him caving. "Oh, alright," he conceded. Even though the sun would be going down soon, he went to close the curtains, making the room instantly darker.

"Do you want some sleep clothes?" he asked.

I nodded.

He walked to his wardrobe and pulled out a sweatshirt that had something written in Cyrillic. I tried to decipher it. Москва. Moskva. Moscow.

He handed it to me, rooting around for the pair of sweats that I had yet to return to him. "I really don't need any pants, Comrade," I said.

He gave me a look.

"I haven't brought you back those sweats," I confessed.

He scratched his head. "Right. Those are the only ones like that," he said.

"I figured, since it took you so long last time. And anyway, I'm fine."

He pursed his lips.

"I have honorable intentions towards you, I swear," I told him. Okay, maybe they weren't exactly honorable. In fact, the things I wanted to do to him were the opposite of honorable. He didn't need to know that.

I went to the bathroom to change. I rinsed my face with cold water before taking a whiff of his aftershave. I loved that smell. It smelt even better on Dimitri than it did in the bottle, though.

I walked out to find him in his own pajamas. A pair of long flannel pants and a matching t-shirt.

I laid down on the side of the bed that I had napped on previously, the left.

"You're lucky that's not my side of the bed," Dimitri joked as he turned the lamps out.

He laid down on the far side of the bed, almost falling off of it.

"Jeez Dimitri, I don't have cooties," I teased.

He chuckled and scooted a little closer to me.

"So I'm guessing you're not from Moscow?" I asked.

"Siberia, actually. A little town called Baia."

"Sounds cute already," I commented.

I could see him clearly, even in the dark. One of the benefits of being Moroi, I guess. I wondered if he could see me at all.

His face had a contemplative quality to it. "Yes. I think you'd like it."

"What's it like?" I asked.

"It's not really like the rumors you hear when you hear about dhampir communes. Everyone is like a big family. We all take care of each other. It's really a good place to grow up."

"Do Moroi men actually come and go?" I asked, too curious to reign in my intrusive questions.

"A little," he admitted. "But you know that in my house, it was really only my father who came and went."

I remembered him telling me about how he'd beat his dad up when he was thirteen. "It was a good thing, what you did," I told him.

I could feel his guilt over it. I didn't know how.

He looked as shocked as I felt.

My eyes were drooping.

I reached out to him and grabbed his hand. It was a lot bigger than mine, but still seemed to fit perfectly. His hand was warm and comforting. I felt the usual electric current flowing in my veins from my hand, but for once it didn't shock me. Instead, it just lulled me further to sleep.

I dropped off into sleep, wondering if I'd imagined Dimitri saying, "Oh, Roza."


	9. Chapter 9

_The mountains were beautiful in the early morning light. I turned around when I heard the door open._

_It was Dimitri._

_My heart raced a little. "Hey," I said._

"_Hi," he said back._

_It was awkward. Things had never been awkward between us until the lust charm. Since then, our friendship hadn't been the same._

_I shouldn't even be calling it a friendship. He was my student. I was his mentor._

"_Are you okay?" Dimitri asked me._

_I looked at him. How had he known that I had been bothered by my mother's comments?_

"_Yeah, I'm fine," I lied._

"_You don't have to lie, Roza." His eyes were shining, worried._

_Mostly, I saw that look when he was worrying about Lissa. He had worn that look a lot when her relationship with Christian had begun. He didn't wear it much anymore, though. He knew Christian and trusted him._

_I couldn't believe he'd used that name on me again. _Roza. _It was beautiful. It made me feel like he cared._

_However, I shouldn't have cared. I shouldn't have felt what I did._

He's your student, _I reminded myself. _He isn't legal. You will be guarding the princess together.

"_Okay," I said. I tried to wear my mentor shoes. Give him some sort of crappy sage advice. I had nothing. "It sounds dumb. It's just that my mom has always been this big bad guardian. And I always wanted to just have her respect, you know? I thought once I was finally a guardian, we'd be equals."_

"_And she still just sees you as a kid," he surmised._

_How could he read me so well?_

"_Roza, you shouldn't believe anything she says about you."_

_He had a look in his eyes. It wasn't lust filled as it had been the night that Lissa had been kidnapped, but softer. Fiery. _

_It burned me. The flames were licking at me as I fought with myself. I could not do this. I couldn't do this._

He's only two years younger, _a nagging voice said in the back of my mind._

_To hell with it._

_I leaned towards him and kissed him. _

_It was the best kiss I'd ever experienced. Better than that time that I had kissed Adrian Ivashkov junior year. Better than even the lust charm kisses, though those had been pretty great too._

_The kiss devoured me. I couldn't stop. I didn't want to stop._

_Dimitri, I realized, was where my heart belonged._

_Not with some random Moroi. Not with any guardians. Just Dimitri._

I woke up abruptly.

I was still in bed with Dimitri, I realized.

I laid there, trapped in his arms, and pondered my dream.

I hadn't had such a strange dream in a long time. Not since I'd first returned to the academy. I wondered what that was about.

I felt Dimitri stirring behind me and wondered how I could possibly feel the way I did. I hadn't thought it was possible to feel this way, about anyone or anything.

Lissa had always been the focus of my life, for some reason. I'd always felt the need to protect her, ever since I'd met her. It had gotten worse as we'd gotten older. Especially after her parents had died, when the bond had started.

I loved Lissa, I knew. She was my sister.

And Dimitri, I definitely didn't see him as a brother.

Before I'd met him, I'd always pictured a future with Lissa by my side. I'd figured that I'd eventually settle down with some guy that I'd met at a coffee shop or bar or something. A Moroi.

Now, however, I pictured Dimitri there. Well, he would always be there. He was my guardian.

It was moments like this, when I was in his arms, that made me sure that my feelings for Dimitri were here to stay.

I couldn't imagine life without him.

He muttered something in Russian, still asleep, I think.

I looked at the clock. It was three am. Classes were almost out.

I wondered how Lissa was.

I tuned into the bond.

Once I was in her head, I saw she was sitting in the feeders, waiting to get blood.

Christian Ozera walked in, and her heart immediately began to beat faster. "Hi, Christian," she said hesitantly.

"Hello, Princess," he said coldly.

"Why won't you ever talk to me anymore?" she asked. She was hurt. That was my fault. I'd lied to him about her feelings.

"You don't have to pretend anymore," he sneered.

She was taken aback. She had thought that maybe he would talk to her if she tried again.

She felt so alone. I could feel it. It sang through every pore in her body.

I wished I could make it better, but she had brought this upon herself.

At least she'd have her fake friends and her reputation.

The lady holding the clipboard finally called out her name.

I decided that I was bored with her life for now and slipped out of her head. If she'd known that I had been there, she would have thrown a hissy fit.

I was back in my own body again. Ten minutes had passed by.

Dimitri's grip tightened around me for a second before he groaned.

"Good morning," I told him.

I turned towards him, still in his arms.

He glanced over me at the clock.

"Don't you mean good afternoon?" he asked.

I nodded. "Hey, I need to go to the feeders. Do you want to do a workout session after and then hang out some more?"

"Sure," he answered. "But I have a shift after our required hour."

"A shift?" I asked. "For what? It's not nighttime."

"Just at the gate," he supplied. "You can come and observe everything if you want. I'm sure that Guardian Sizova would be okay with you being there."

"That would be cool," I said. "See where you work when you're not with me," I joked.

"Let me get changed. We can go to my room really quickly."

**TRSTRSTRS**

After we trained, I walked with Dimitri to the gates.

Guardian Sizova was there already, reading a magazine.

"So is this what guardians do when Moroi aren't around?" I asked Dimitri jokingly.

"The gate shift is generally one of the most boring, since not many people go in and out. Generally, we just hang out."

"Hang out?" I asked.

I didn't know that guardians hung out.

Guardian Sizova looked over at us confusedly.

"Guardian Sizova," Dimitri began. "This is Rose Hathaway, my charge."

"Oh, I've heard of you," Guardian Sizova snickered. "Willa Sizova, at your service." She held her hand out for me to shake. I did so. Ow, she had a strong grip.

Willa Sizova had a slight Russian accent, too. It wasn't nearly as strong as Dimitri's though, so I assumed that it was a secondhand accent from her mother.

She was pretty, for a guardian. Maybe it was because she was still kind of young. She wasn't leathery like Guardian Petrov was. She had dark blue eyes and medium brown hair. She was kind of average, as far as I could tell.

"Oh no," Dimitri joked. "Now that you've told her your first name, that's all she'll ever call you."

I grinned at them. "How old are you anyway, Willa?" I asked curiously.

Her eyes narrowed a little. "Twenty. Why?"

"Just wondering," I sang.

Dimitri shook his head. "You'll have to excuse her," he said. "She's…" he searched for a word. "She speaks her mind."

Willa just chortled. "I think we'll get along just fine."

**TRSTRSTRS**

Things after that day progressed pretty miserably. Lissa kept her word about never speaking to me again.

A few days after our shopping trip, Aaron had dumped Mia and immediately began dating Lissa.

Normally, I would blame it on compulsion. Aaron, though, was absolutely smitten with her. It was too bad she didn't feel the same way about him.

Dimitri and I worked up a routine. After dinner, I would hang out with him for a few hours in his room. Nothing ever happened. He'd help me with homework or we'd watch a western. He even convinced me that we could read one together.

I didn't read at all. I never had any inclinations to do so, but at Dimitri's insistence, I had become a huge fan of the book _Shalako _by Louis L'Amour. I'd never admit it to him, but that book was really good. I'd take the secret to the grave with me. I think Dimitri knew though, no matter how hard I tried to hide it.

After we hung out, I would go back to my dorm and go to sleep.

It was nice. It was simple. I loved spending so much time with Dimitri. It was the only bright spot in my life at the moment. It was what I looked forward to every day.

**TRSTRSTRS**

The day before the dance, I talked to Mason.

"Aren't you going?" he asked.

"Nope," I said. I hated to waste a good dress but what fun was a dance without any friends?

"Why not?" he persisted.

"It isn't my scene," I lied.

He just shook his head and went back to his notes.

The night of the dance, he showed up at my door.

"Come on, Rose. It's your last fall dance at St. Vlad's."

"Oh, alright," I consented. "But you'd better stick with me the whole night."

I didn't get to hang out with Dimitri tonight, anyway. He had an extra shift since so many guardians were required to chaperone the dance.

I showered and dressed quickly. I applied a little more makeup than usual and carefully placed the rose necklace from Victor around my neck.

Mason's eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw me.

I wished I liked Mason. I couldn't help that Dimitri had captured my heart first. Now, every time I pictured someone whispering dirty things in my ear, he had a Russian accent.

"You look great," he finally managed.

"Thanks," I responded. "You look pretty sharp yourself."

We walked arm and arm through campus.

We came across Dimitri and Guardian Petrov on the way there.

She was looking at us in the way old people looked at young people who were being silly. Dimitri, though, was staring at me.

"Hi Guardian Petrov," I said. My voice was a little breathy. "Dimitri."

"Hello Miss Hathaway, Mason. I would have thought you would be at the dance already."

"You know girls," Mason joked. "Always got to look perfect."

"You do look nice, Miss Hathaway," Guardian Petrov smiled at me.

She began to walk away, Dimitri in tow. He shot one last look at me and my knees nearly buckled.

That look in his eyes…

"So I've got a surprise for you," Mason told me as we got closer to the commons.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"You'll have to see when we get there," he said, wagging his finger at me.

I just laughed.

When we got to the dance, it was in full swing. The disco ball was out, the streamers were hanging, and the floor was covered in glitter.

I felt bad for whoever had to clean that up.

I saw Lissa across the room, talking with Aaron and her "friends." She was wearing the dress we'd bought at Dillard's.

"Okay, so my surprise is this way," Mason said. We began to walk towards a corner where Jesse and Ralf were standing.

"Oh no," I said. "I can't be seen with them unless I have an ax or something."

He guffawed. "Trust me, you'll like this," he assured.

"Hey guys," Mason said to them as a hello. "Can you tell Rose what you told me?"

They both sighed and looked depressed.

"We lied," they said.

"Really?" I asked acerbically. "I never would have guessed that!"

"What else, boys?" Mase asked.

"Mia slept with us."

"Both of you?" I asked, confused.

They nodded. Ew. Who would want to sleep with Ralf?

"At the same time?" I asked.

"No!" Jesse nearly shouted. Ralf looked like he wouldn't have minded.

"Wait," I began to piece things together. "This happened while she was still with Aaron."

Mason nodded.

"God, Mia must really hate me to sleep with Ralf," I said aloud, unable to keep my thoughts contained.

Ralf only looked mildly insulted, while Mason guffawed.

"So you guys are going to tell everybody what happened, right?" Mason asked them.

They gulped. "Can we wait until Monday?" Jesse asked.

"Go ahead," Mason allowed generously.

As we walked away, he said, "Might as well allow them some freedom before their reputations come crashing down."

I nodded in agreement.

"But," Mason grinned devilishly. "We can tell everyone now!"

"Yes!" I crowed.

We did just that. Everything was going swimmingly until I felt Lissa's stress spike.

I began to walk over, noticing that Mia was standing near her.

"I know why you were in the clinic!" Mia told her. "You're crazy. You and your slutty friend-"

I grabbed Mia's arm, yanking her away from Lissa easily. "Hi, slutty friend here! Leave her alone!"

She glared at me, her doll-like face becoming, if possible, even more furious and evil.

"Why does it matter to you?" Mia asked. "She dropped you. She hates you. You don't have anymore friends! And she's just as messed up as you are! I got a hold of her records! I know that she-"

She was about to tell everyone Lissa's secret. I couldn't help it. On impulse, I punched her.

Man, that thing gushed like Mount Vesuvius must have. I was proud of it. My punches had never been that strong. I'd have to thank Dimitri later!

Guardians swarmed around me.

Lissa ran off as I was surrounded by dhampirs attempting to tear me away from the dance.

I saw Christian as they rushed me out. "Christian! Go after her!"

He glared at me. "Why would I do that?"

"You're good for her!" I shouted. "I lied! She's going to need someone to be there for her!"

He nodded and rushed out of the room.

They continued to drag me to my dorm. I didn't resist.

I paced in my room, worrying about Mia's effect on Lissa. As I was thinking about her, I was pulled into her head.

She too was pacing. She froze when she saw Christian walk into the attic.

"What are you doing here?" she asked bitterly. "I thought you weren't talking to me."

His eyes were soft when he looked at her. It wasn't pity, but I could tell that he wished she'd not be so hard on everyone.

They talked for a few minutes, and Lissa began to feel gradually better.

Well, until a group of guardians invaded the attic and clocked Christian over the back of the head.

I think I screamed.

They didn't hit Lissa over the head. Instead, they just grabbed her and ran.

I needed to go to Dimitri. He could help. But how would I get out?

Finally, I decided that my only option was to escape through the window.

I looked down, not worried at all for some reason. All I knew was that I needed to get to Dimitri.

I saw a series of vines that traveled all the way to the ground. How convenient.

I needed to use all the training that Dimitri had given me. He'd never taught me how to climb ropes, but maybe my newfound strength would help my endeavor.

I shimmied down the vines carefully, slowly.

From there, I ran to the guardian dorms. I didn't care that it was broad daylight. I didn't care that anyone could see me. The only thought in my head was Dimitri.

When I got to his room, I pounded on the door.

I heard some shuffling on the other side before he opened the door. He was a little groggy, and his hair was wet. Dimitri had been getting ready for bed.

"Rose?" he asked, confused.

"Something's wrong," I attempted to say. I couldn't think of anything else except that his chest was oh-so incredibly bare.

I was filled with the need to kiss him. I couldn't reach his face, so instead, I dove for his chest.

I kissed it a little hungrily. "Rose, wha-?" he attempted. He grabbed my wrists. An electric current ran through us. _Dimitri. _

I kissed his chest again, and he let me. He pulled away, struggling with something.

"Rose, we can't-"

"I thought… I thought you… Don't you think I'm pretty?" I asked.

Whatever had come over him was gone.

"Of course I do. You're beautiful. So beautiful, it hurts me."

I pulled him down by his hair, consumed by his passionate words.

I kissed him on the lips for the first time.

Fireworks went off. The hallelujah chorus played.

He responded back, kissing me hungrily.

He lifted me up, and I wrapped my legs around his waist.

Then, he took me to the bed.

We kissed for what felt like hours, but what I assumed was only minutes. I laid on my side, playing with his hair. "Wow," I said, looking at his _molnijas. _"Did you really kill six Strigoi?"

He nodded, a haunted look taking over his face for a few moments. "What's that like?"

He looked at me seriously. "It's something I have to do. I'd rather not, but they're evil creatures. It's just a waste of life, you know? They all used to be dhampir, Moroi, or human at some point."

"That's why you go to church every Sunday," I realized. "Because you feel bad about it."

He looked shocked. "How do you figure these things out about me?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Maybe we were just meant to be," I suggested. The need to kiss him filled me once again.

As I nibbled on his neck, his hands roamed my body. He began to pull my dress off, chanting my name like a prayer, _Roza, Roza, Roza_.

The cold air hit my body, but it didn't deter me.

"You… you got rid of that dress fast," I commented between kisses. "I thought you liked it."

"I _love _it," he told me seriously. "But it looks even better off!"

I giggled, blushing.

I'd never been naked around a boy before. Sure, I had had my shirt and bra off with Jesse, but it wasn't the same.

For the first time ever, I felt self-conscious of my body. I blushed again, and he seemed to sense it.

"You're beautiful," Dimitri assured me as he laced kisses down my middle.

Butterflies were dancing around my belly. Butterflies that were spreading fire throughout my insides.

He was straddling me, hands in my hair, on my arms, on my stomach, on my hips. It seemed like they were everywhere, and I didn't even wonder how he did it.

I tugged on his hair, bringing his lips back to mine. It felt like I was home.

After a few more minutes of kissing, his lips found their way to my breast. It was the same one that he had walked in on Jesse sucking on.

"I.. hated… seeing him… doing this to you," Dimitri said.

To be honest, I regretted the moment I'd allowed Jesse to do so. Dimitri's mouth worked wonders on me, ten times hotter than Jesse's had ever been.

"Maybe you should have been doing it from the start," I moaned, arching into him.

Dimitri's eyes were asking a question as they stared into mine.

I was ready. I was ready to give up my virginity.

He must have seen the decision on my face, because his movements suddenly had more fire, more passion than they had before. I hadn't thought it was possible. He was so beautiful.

I was glad that I had waited for Dimitri, waited for the right moment.

Dimitri unclasped the rose necklace, and as soon as he removed it, I felt as if I was waking up.

"What… what happened?" I asked. I was a little out of breath, a little dizzy.

"I… don't know," he said. For the first time, I realized how much more pronounced his accent had become.

He blinked.

He touched me again, and a voice said _kiss him_

I tried to, but he got up from the bed.

"Hey, what are you-? Come back!"

He looked like he really wanted to. Instead of doing as I'd requested, he went over to the window. And opened it. He chucked the necklace out the window.

Instead of the waking up sensation, I was suddenly awake. Startlingly, painfully so. It was as if I'd been drenched in cold water.

"Oh, God," I whimpered. "Lissa… she's been kidnapped!" I told him.

"What?" he asked, shocked. He immediately began to look for clothes.

He threw me the sweatshirt that I'd worn a few weeks ago. I pulled on my dress and then the sweatshirt on top of it.

I looked around for my bra and underwear as he pulled on a pair of black guardian slacks and a white button down shirt.

I pulled my underwear up my body and bit my lip. "Come on," he said gently. "We have to tell the other guardians."

I nodded and left with him, barefoot. I realized that I had come looking for him barefoot, too.

When we got to the guardian building, everyone looked shocked to see me. An uproar began, but Dimitri managed to quiet them.

"Princess Dragomir has been kidnapped!" he told them calmly.

If possible, even more shouting began.

Guardian Petrov walked calmly towards Dimitri, her face deadly serious. "How do you know this, Guardian Belikov?"

"Rose here has a psychic bond with the princess," he revealed.

She turned to me so quickly that I thought she might have gotten whiplash.

"Is this true?" she asked.

I nodded.

She immediately began barking orders at the guardians. Soon enough, Kirova was there.

She ordered for Christian to be retrieved from the attic.

When he got there, he looked woozy. Nevertheless, everybody began to bombard him with questions. "How many Strigoi were there?" "How did they get on campus?" "How did they get on church grounds?"

"They weren't Strigoi," I told them.

"What?" a guardian I didn't know asked.

"They were guardians," I told them.

Kirova eyed me suspiciously. "You're telling me a group of privately retained guardians attacked Princess Dragomir and Lord Ozera?"

"It's true," Christian finally spoke up. "They were guardians."

Kirova gasped and held a hand to her chest.

I checked up on Lissa through the bond, finding it incredibly easy with the amount of terror that was pouring into me.

"They belong to Victor Dashkov," I told them.

"Prince Victor Dashkov?" someone asked with a snort.

"Yes," I whined. "Come on, you have to hurry. They're getting further away. They're on… Eighty-three. Headed south."

"Eighty-three already? How long ago did they leave? Why didn't you tell us sooner?" Guardian Petrov asked.

I turned to look at Dimitri nervously. I didn't know what to say, for once. I didn't have a lie that could cover up what had happened between us.

His eyes made contact with mine for a second before he told them, "A compulsion spell. A compulsion spell he placed on that necklace he gave her. It made her attack me."

Kirova looked at him. "No one can use that kind of compulsion," she argued. "No one's done that in ages."

"Well, somebody did," Dimitri asserted. "By the time I'd restrained her and taken the necklace, a lot of time had passed." His face was deadly serious, too. It was perfectly controlled, a feat only a guardian could surely pull off in such conditions.

Restrained me? That was one way to put what we'd been doing, I thought. I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the images of the two of us, so close to making love.

No one questioned his story. They immediately began to act, piling into school SUVs and vans.

"I need to come," I told Dimitri.

"It isn't safe," he said firmly.

"But I'm the only one who knows where they're going and I'll know where they'll be," I argued.

He frowned, and I knew I had won this argument. I was the only one who could tell them where they were taking Lissa.

I was in the passenger seat, Dimitri driving the leading SUV.

"They're still on eighty-three," I told him. "But their turn is coming. They aren't speeding; they don't want to be pulled over."

Dimitri sped up. He didn't care about getting pulled over. We couldn't afford to get too far behind them.

He explained to me quietly that there had been a charm on the necklace. A lust charm. I'd never heard of such a thing, but when I asked, he just explained that it was a type of magic that earth users practiced.

Was fire only good for one thing?

What had it all meant? Had those moments meant anything to him? They sure had meant a lot to me.

About twenty minutes later, I said, "There!" A few guardians jumped.

As we turned onto the gravel road, I tuned back into Lissa's mind.

"They're turning again," I narrated.

We followed them down a lot of roads I'd never known existed. Finally, Victor's van came to a stop.

"They're outside a small cabin. They're taking her-"

"Why are you doing this? What's going on?" Lissa asked them angrily.

"Come child," Victor motioned towards the cabin.

A guardian pushed Lissa through the front door that another guardian had opened for Victor. She was pushed into a leather chair. She shivered, goose flesh covering her arms. It was cold here.

"Do you think I'd seriously hurt you?" Victor asked her.

She ignored him. "What did you do to Christian? Is he dead?"

Victor looked shocked and hurt by her accusation. "The Ozera boy? I didn't mean for that to happen. We'd hoped to catch you alone, to convince others you'd run away again. We made sure those rumors were circulated."

We? I thought back to where those stories had surfaced from this week. _Natalie._

"Now?" he sighed. "I doubt anyone will trace it back to us. Rose will be a problem. We'd intended to… dispatch her, leading others to think she'd run away, too. The debacle at the dance made that impossible, but I had another plan in place. It will keep her pretty busy, until probably tomorrow. We'll have to contend with her eventually."

He loved to talk just as much as his daughter, explaining his evil scheme. He'd probably been expecting Dimitri and I to be too busy getting it on all night. He hadn't counted on Dimitri figuring the spell.

"Why?" Lissa asked again. "Why are you doing all this?"

His jade eyes that looked just like Lissa's widened faux-innocently. "I'm surprised you even have to ask, my dear. I need you to heal me."

**Hey, guys. So it's really close to the end of the story arc of the first book in the original world. It will not, however, be the end of TRS. I'm actually a few chapters ahead, so as a gift, I decided to update early. **

**I also wanted to let you all know that there is a blog dedicated to TRS, if you wanted to check it out. I don't know if anyone really likes it enough, but it's on tumblr. The URL is theredstringseries dot tumblr dot com.**

**Please tell me what you thought!**


	10. Chapter 10

"Heal you?" she asked.

"You're the only way," he explained. "The only way to cure the disease. I've been watching for years. I've waited until I was absolutely certain."

"I can't do any of that," Lissa protested. "I can't… no… you must be thinking of someone else."

"No," Victor argued. "Your powers are incredible. I've seen what you can do. That crow that you brought back from the dead. Healing Rose…"

"That was just her ankle," Lissa said.

"That isn't what I meant, though that was pretty remarkable, too. I meant when you healed Rose in the car accident."

Lissa shook her head. "Rose wasn't hurt."

"You're right… she wasn't hurt. She was dead."

Lissa and I gasped at the same time. I'd died?

She thought back to my broken, unconscious body. The feeling that had welled up in her for a second.

I remembered the feeling of hot cold hot, and then waking up.

"I can't do anything about Sandovsky's Syndrome," Lissa told him. "Rose couldn't have died. She lived!"

"No. Well, yes. She did. Because you brought her back. I read the reports. There was no way she should have survived. I tried to hard to replicate it, to see you do it again…"

"The animals," Lissa realized. "That was you!" She felt betrayed.

"And Natalie," he reminded.

"Why would you do that?" she demanded. "How could you?"

"I had to know! I only have a few weeks to live, Vasilisa! If you can bring back the dead, you can cure Sandovsky's."

"Why take me at all? You're my near-uncle. I would have done it for you if you'd just asked."

"It's not a one-time thing," he explained. "When I read about how wielding spirit works-"

"Wielding what?" she asked agitatedly.

"Spirit. It's what you've specialized in."

"You're wrong. I haven't specialized in anything. You're insane." She truly believed it, too. However, things were starting to come together in my mind. Ms. Karp's healing my hands. My ankle suddenly and miraculously better, when I'd been so sure I'd broken it. Lissa's depression. Ms. Karp's marks. St. Vladimir, even. He'd healed things. He'd been mad.

"That doesn't make any sense," Lissa pushed on. "Even if I had specialized in it, I would have heard about another element!"

"Nobody remembers spirit anymore," Victor explained patiently. "It's been forgotten. Written out of the histories."

St. Vladimir hadn't been completely crazy, I realized. If Victor was telling the truth, and really who knew at this point if he was?, then Lissa had specialized. St. Vladimir had done so many of the same things as Lissa. He'd had Shadow-Kissed Anna to help him. The blessed and crazy St. Vladimir. Followers had flocked to him. Maybe the same natural charisma as Lissa had, or maybe compulsion.

Lissa was excellent at compulsion.

It explained everything.

"You will be tired a lot," Victor told her. "But you will paid generously. Every luxury to accommodate you."

"Why are you doing this?" she asked. "I thought you were resigned to your fate."

"If I am cured, I can become king," he explained as if it were obvious. "I could bring about a revolution to the Moroi people."

"A revolution?" she questioned.

"Queen Tatiana was ready to name me her successor until it was discovered that I was sick."

"But nobody's ever healed from Sandovsky's. Wouldn't it be suspicious? She still wouldn't name you king!"

"I know people, Vasilisa. You think that I don't have any followers? I have more followers than you'd believe, ready to defend my opinions and beliefs."

He sighed, pity in his eyes. "You could have been such a good leader, too. Too bad you specialized in spirit. It turns those who could have been revolutionaries into weaklings."

"Weaklings?" she asked offended.

"Where do you think your power comes from? Earth users draw from the earth, air users from the air. But spirit? Where does that come from?"

She glared at him.

"It comes from you. Your very essence. To heal another, you must give a part of yourself. It will destroy you over time. You must have noticed that. You've been so fragile as of late."

"I'm not fragile," Lissa snapped. "And I'm not going to go crazy. I'm going to stop using spirit before it gets any worse."

She was determined to. She wouldn't give Victor what he wanted.

Victor, however, snorted. He had an amused, but serious look on his face. "Stop using spirit? You might as well stop breathing! It's a part of you! Ingrained into who you are. Spirit has its own agenda."

"And if you healed me, I would be able to take my rightful place. The Moroi and their guardians used to fight side by side, wielding their elements…" his eyes had a faraway look in them. "Now we wait. We wait to be slaughtered. We are _victims,_" he said this word disgustedly.

He continued on. "But no longer. We will fight with our guardians! _I _should have been Tatiana's heir!" he ranted.

I shook my head, back in the SUV. Lissa, though, found herself considering his words. She'd never thought much about the condition of the Moroi. She contemplated society, and for the first time saw something she didn't like. Not that it mattered now. She, too, shook her head a moment later.

"This isn't a way to go about it," she argued.

Victor was right. She could be a wonderful leader if she thought about the adversity society faced. She thought of Christian's attack spells, how he'd set Ralf on fire.

I was thinking, too. I wanted to learn defensive magic now more than ever. Now wasn't the time to think of that.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I'm sorry for you. Please, don't make me do it."

"I have to."

She steeled herself. "I _won't _do it," she told him firmly. She seemed to be trying to lace some compulsion into her words, but he merely laughed. She was the first person she'd failed to compel.

He inclined his head. A Moroi man came forward. "This is Kenneth. He's an air user," he introduced. "I think he may be able to convince you otherwise."

Lissa shook her head. Kenneth untied Lissa's hands.

"Just take my hands and heal me," Victor ordered. "One way or another, you'll heal me," he said as she shook her head again. "I'd rather it be on your terms than ours."

"No," she uttered the words, her resolve strong and unwavering. That was when the pain hit her.

In the SUV, I screamed.

The guardians all jumped again. "They're torturing us, her," I corrected myself. "They have an air user," I gasped. I was so tired, so out of breath. My head felt like it was going to explode. "He's smothering me- her- with air."

Dimitri cursed in Russian and sped up.

I started sobbing. I would have done anything they wanted by this point.

Lissa must have agreed, because finally she took Victor's hands. Lissa thought of all the good things in the world, summoning them. Color and light and music entered her head, and it was beautiful. It was powerful. I didn't want to let it go.

I'd never been in her head while she worked magic, and it was nothing like wielding fire. I didn't want to let it go.

She did, though. Victor was healed. He looked his age again. His hair was back to its original black, the wrinkles erased from his face. He looked like the man from our childhood. The one who would never had betrayed us in such a way.

Lissa was exhausted. I was exhausted.

She passed out.

I tried to tell Dimitri what had happened. His face grew darker and darker. I'd never seen him so eerily angry. He spat out a string of curses in Russian again. I had the general idea of what he said, but he still refused to teach me exactly what they meant. I'd never learn them in class, either.

Guardian Petrov made a call on her cell phone when we got about a quarter of a mile from the cabin.

As soon as we got there, the guardians all piled out of the SUV. They were efficient, deadly. Christian had once described them as an army of death, and I could see it. They were as deadly as cobras, waiting to strike.

I started to get out of the SUV, too. Dimitri stopped me. "No, Roza," he said. "You stay here." His use of my name in Russian made me stop for a second, before resuming.

"I have to help her."

"You have helped her. Your job is done. She and I both need you to stay safe."

My heart fluttered, but I told it to shut up.

I realized arguing was only delaying her rescue. "Okay," I finally said. "Get her back, please," I pleaded, grabbing his hand.

"I will," he told me gently.

He marched off with the rest of the guardians.

I realized Lissa had woken up.

She stood up woozily. She looked at the Moroi who was standing guard over her. He scrutinized her.

She let her magic fill her again before saying, "You will go to sleep. You won't stop me."

He nodded.

She dropped the compulsion and smiled at him. It wasn't her usual smile. It was an icy one, one I didn't know Lissa possessed.

She examined the window. She opened it up and crawled out.

"Oh, Lissa," I whined. If only she knew that her rescuers were there. Why had she picked _now _of all times to be gutsy?

"What'd she do?" a voice asked from the back of the SUV.

I jumped, turning around. It was Christian.

"We have to go get her," I told him. I didn't stop to think of how he would probably ruin everything. How I might ruin everything. I was the only one who would be able to find Lissa. "She escaped," I explained.

He nodded, jumping up. I thought for a moment. "Don't you have a concussion?"

"So?"

I looked at him for a moment. He had a good point. If they hadn't allowed me to come, I would have been back there right next to Christian.

"Come on," I finally said. We began to run in the general direction that she had gone off in.

It was daylight out. It weakened me a little, but I was a little used to it from my trainings with Dimitri. Christian, on the other hand, was slowing down dramatically. He panted, and must have noticed he was holding me back.

"Go on," he waved. "I'll catch up."

I nodded, steeling myself. I needed to stay strong. I needed to save my best friend.

I finally found her in a clearing. "Liss!" I shouted.

"Rose?" she asked, shocked. She was leaning against a tree, catching her breath. She'd been running even longer than me. She didn't have the same endurance as I did, so I was a little impressed with how far she'd gotten. "What are you doing here?"

"The guardians are here to rescue you," I said. "Come on."

"Victor said that you wouldn't come to look for me until tomorrow."

"Well…" I hesitated. "He was wrong. Come on."

I heard the pounding of feet and growling. Psy-hounds.

They came at us. I grabbed a stick and swung it at them. I hit one with it over the head, and he fell down.

I hated to do it, they reminded me too much of dogs. I couldn't help it, though. They were under Victor's orders.

Christian arrived, picking up a stick of his own. He lit it on fire, and I copied him.

The hounds backed off before one, clever thing, circled around his back.

"Christian!" I called out too late.

It attacked him, and he crumpled down. The fire went out, and they all attacked. I put the fire out of mine and hit another over the head.

I heard a gunshot and froze. Guardian Petrov and Dimitri stood there. "Hold still, Miss Hathaway," she ordered.

I did as she said, and she shot the rest of the hounds.

Once the danger was gone, Lissa and I ran to Christian.

He looked like he was on the edge of death.

Guardian Petrov examined him. "He won't make it back to the academy," she said sadly.

An idea came into my head. "Lissa, heal him!"

She tried. She really did. "I'm too weak!" she cried.

She needed blood. "Here," I told her, moving my hair to the side.

She gasped. "I couldn't- Rose, no," she said, shaking her head.

"It's the only way to save him," I answered firmly. "Just do it. Come on, just do it."

She nodded and brought her lips to my neck. All my life, I had taken blood from others. I had never had any of my own taken.

It was weird, to say the least. I felt the rush of endorphins, but it wasn't as I'd heard them described before. Maybe Moroi didn't get as high as dhampirs and humans.

She removed her fangs from my skin daintily. Then, she turned to Christian. I watched woozily as she healed him. The magic welled up in her, and slowly he returned to normal.

I began to sway. This night had been too much for me.

Dimitri must have noticed me, because I was in his arms in a moment. "Roza?" he asked quietly. I smiled loopily at him.

"I'm alright," I told him. Darkness took over, and I passed out.

**TRSTRSTRS**

I woke up to blinding white light.

I opened my mouth to speak. "Either I died, or I'm in the clinic," I joked as I opened my eyes. My voice was croaky. "Definitely the clinic," I noted as I took in my surroundings.

Lissa was sitting in the chair next to my bed. "Oh, Rose," she said.

I hugged her. "I'm so glad you're okay," I said.

"I'm sorry!" she cried. "I shouldn't have gotten so mad at you! You were just trying to help!"

"It's okay," I said gently, rubbing her hair. "How long have I been out?"

"About three days," she said.

I gasped. "That long?"

She nodded. "You've missed a lot, too."

"Like what?" I asked curiously.

"Well, Christian and I are dating."

"Okay," I accepted. I had to be okay with it, what with the way he had been willing to lay down his life for hers.

"And Victor is in a holding cell on campus."

That wasn't a surprise.

Dr. Olendzki came in. "Rose," she said.

"When can I leave?" I interrupted.

"Well," she began uncomfortably. "I can't actually keep you here now that you're awake. Nothing is physically wrong with you."

I nodded, hopping up from my bed. "I can't wait to get some food in me," I said. "What time is it?"

"Lunch time, coincidentally," Lissa laughed.

"Yes!" I fist pumped. "Let's get to the feeders and then the commons!"

She laughed again.

It was as if we'd never gotten in a fight.

**TRSTRSTRS**

For the next few days, I didn't see Dimitri.

I was off probation since I'd helped with Lissa's rescue.

I no longer had to spend an hour a day with him, and I think he used it to his advantage. One day, as I was leaving the gym, we crossed paths.

"Dimitri," I said.

He looked down at me, a pained expression on his face.

"Rose, you have to report what happened between us."

"I- what?" I was taken aback. "Why would I do that?"

"Because it was wrong. I took advantage of you."

"You didn't," I said. "I was just as willing."

"I should have known better," he argued. "It was improper, illegal. It was wrong."

Ouch. It hadn't meant anything to him. It had meant the world to me. I had thought that maybe he returned my feelings.

I didn't say anything. I just fumed.

"You're still a child, Rose."

I gaped at him. "Your life is about homework and boys and clothes."

"Are you saying that's all I care about?" I asked.

"No," he said. "But it's what your life revolves around right now. You're too young for me. I've been out in the world. I've killed things, Rose. Not just animals, but people."

"I don't care," I stated. "Besides, you didn't seem to think I was too young when you were all over me."

"Just because your body is-" he froze for a second, before continuing on. "You're still a child."

"You do get that I don't actually feel that way?" he asked.

I narrowed my eyes. "Could have fooled me," I muttered.

"It was the spell. I don't feel that way about you. Do you understand?"

I nodded angrily, tears close to welling up in my eyes.

I stormed away, gym bag swinging against my hip, hitting it over and over again, rubbing against my bare shoulder.

If he had just acted that way under the spell, maybe my stronger feelings for him were left over from the charm. Maybe it wasn't completely broken.

I ran to the holding cell. Even Natalie hadn't been able to get in, but I managed to convince them to allow me to visit him.

Maybe it was because I was one of his victims, not one of his helpers. Maybe they just felt sorry for me.

"Rosemarie!" Victor said in surprise. He smiled.

I glared at him. "I want you to break it!" I told him.

"Break what?"

"The charm. I still feel it. I still… want him."

"My dear," he proclaimed. "Those are entirely your own feelings. The spell has burned itself out."

"Then why do I-?"

"Because you have a crush on him! Natalie saw it and reported it to me. I saw it as well, once she had pointed it out. I tell you, that charm would have only worked if you'd felt something."

"But he said-"

"Really," Victor began. "You both had to feel something."

I tried to work it out in my head. "And really, he should be ashamed of himself," he made a _tsk_ing sound. "You can be forgiven for a schoolgirl's crush. But him? He should know better."

I glared at him again.

Behind me, I heard a commotion. Natalie was walking towards me. I felt so bad for her, despite what she had done to us. She just loved her dad.

"Hey," I said.

She looked at me. The way she moved was different. More graceful, more efficient. "What are you doing here?" I asked.

She threw me at the wall as if I were a rag doll.

"Finally," Victor said.

"Sorry," Natalie apologized to him. Her voice was colder. Her speech was more concise. "I had to deal with the guards."

I looked to see that the guards had been taken down as well.

Natalie slammed me against the wall, and I noticed for the first time what was so different about her. Her pupils had red rings around them. Natalie was Strigoi.

I felt more scared than I had just moments ago. "Really, dear," Victor interrupted. "Try not to kill her."

She narrowed her red eyes. "I'll try." Well, that didn't sound very convincing. She dropped me to the ground and went to open the cell that he was in.

"Natalie?" I asked. "Why would you do this?"

"Because it helps my father," she answered.

"But you turned Strigoi?" I asked.

"My father will save the Moroi!"

I raised my eyebrows at her. "But you're Strigoi now. Isn't it your goal to destroy us?"

"My father will help me. My sacrifice will save everyone."

"God, Natalie."

"It's worth giving up the sun and the magic," she said.

"No, it isn't," I told her.

She picked me up and slammed me against the wall again.

Stars danced in my vision. Then, Dimitri came charging down the corridor like death in a cowboy duster.

My savior.

Natalie's eyes widened. They began to circle each other. Soon enough, he drove his stake into her chest. I noticed that she was clumsy, for a Strigoi. Maybe it was a side effect of being so new.

Dimitri cradled me to his chest.

"Roza," he whispered. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I lied. Really, my head was spinning. Aching. Pounding.

He began to carry me to the clinic.

"Is it true?" I asked him.

"Is what true?"

"Victor said that the lust charm only worked because you already felt something for me."

He looked down at me in shock. He pursed his lips before saying, "Yes, it's true. I lied before."

"But why?"

"Because, Roza, we can't be together," he whispered.

My heart nearly broke in my chest. "Why not? Because of our age difference?" I didn't think seven years was that bad.

"Well, yes, there's that. But I also don't want people to look down on you," he explained.

I didn't get that. "What do you mean?"

"People would be upset that a dhampir and Moroi were together."

Why would people even care? Victor's words from that night came back to mind. _The Moroi and their guardians used to fight side by side. _Dhampirs hadn't been just protectors back then. When had things become so screwed up?

"I don't care," I told him. "It's my life. They can all screw themselves."

He chuckled humorlessly. "But I do, Roza. Something like this, they'll hold it against you forever. You won't be able to find a job as easily. You'll lose friends."

I shook my head, but that only made everything worse.

"We're here," Dimitri said.

"Oh no," I heard Dr. Olendzki say.

I should have had my own permanent bed at the clinic, considering how often I'd been there in the last few months.

Dimitri laid me down on a bed, and I missed his warmth immediately.

"Rose, you need to stay awake," Dr. Olendzki told me. "What happened?"

I explained about Natalie turning Strigoi. Dimitri told us about how he had found Mr. Nagy dead, the blood drained out of him, how he'd realized that there was a Strigoi on campus.

No more Slavic art for us.

A few days later, I was released again. Dimitri made me wait a few days before we got back to training. He didn't avoid me as before, but he didn't seek me out, either.

I felt a little lonely. I missed him.

Lissa and I were back to being best friends, but Dimitri had become an integral part of my life. I didn't know what I would do with myself now that I didn't spend most of my free time with him.

Lissa didn't spend as much time with me as we would have done when we'd first arrived back at St. Vladimir's. She spent much more time with Christian. I had to learn to share her, which I hated.

Maybe I wouldn't have hated it so much if I could have a boyfriend of my own.

Once upon a time, I would have gone out looking for a boyfriend once Lissa abandoned me. Now, I only wanted one man as a boyfriend, and no one else would compare.

I spent a lot of time training, studying Russian, and wandering around the woods.

A week or so after I was released from the clinic, I came across a raven. It was different than other ravens. It had a sharp look in its eyes, an intelligence I'd never seen before in a bird. The way it looked at me, I realized that it was _the _raven, the one that Lissa had brought back from the dead.

"You're connected to her too, aren't you?" I asked it.

It tilted its head towards me.

I felt kind of stupid for talking to a bird.

"Well," I began. "You wanna be friends?" I held my arm out, hoping for some movie-worthy gesture where it would land on my arm. Instead, it just gave me a look, as if to say, _You're crazy, _before flying off into the sunrise.


	11. Chapter 11

"I don't think my pills are working anymore."

I glanced at Lissa, confused. "What?"

She'd been taking pills since the Victor incident three weeks before.

"Don't freak out," she spoke in a calm tone, trying to alleviate my fears. "I just feel closer to the magic."

"What about your moods?" I asked.

"They're… alright," she hesitated. I could feel her emotions, though. She should know better than to lie to me. She sometimes felt the anger and depression setting in, before it would be gone.

In fact, I felt some lurking in a dark corner of her mind right at that moment. I poked and prodded at it.

For a moment, I felt something shift in me. I felt angry at her for not telling me sooner. I shook the thought from my head. I looked through her mind for the darkness, but it was gone.

I wondered if I'd imagined it.

"Tell me if it gets worse," I ordered.

She nodded, her blonde hair moving forward a little. She looked like an angel. Today she was wearing a green sweater than complemented her eyes perfectly.

We continued to walk towards the dorm building. When I got to her room, she waved me in.

"So what else is up?" I asked.

"Christian and I are going to meet up," she said excitedly.

What?

Ew.

"Well, I'd better split," I told her. "I don't want to see Sparky at this time of day."

She gave me an odd look. "Have fun!" I called. "Be safe!"

"Rose! We aren't having sex tonight," she looked a little scandalized. I didn't understand why she looked that way, when I knew for a fact that she was hoping for it. I dug a little deeper in her mind and realized they had it planned, just not tonight.

Ew.

"Not any of my business," I told her a little bitterly.

She didn't catch my tone, and I was grateful she hadn't. She didn't need to catch wind of my feelings for Dimitri.

"Seriously," I told her. "Just in case, be safe. No love without a glove," I quipped.

She rolled her eyes. "If you really don't want to see Christian, you should probably leave soon. He's supposed to be here in five minutes."

"Ick," I muttered. "See ya, Liss."

I walked back to my dorm room moodily.

It wasn't that I was jealous of her, well not of her being intimate with _Christian_. It was more that she was able to be in the relationship that she wanted, and act on it.

I knew sometimes it was difficult for the two, sure. After all, Christian was a "Strigoi wanna-be" and she was the only living Dragomir. People weren't exactly accepting of their relationship, but nobody tried to stop them either. They were _happy._

I unlocked my door, immediately heading for my bed. If I didn't want to get sucked into her head, I couldn't go to sleep until Christian had left her presence. I pulled out the copy of _Shalako _that I had stolen from Dimitri.

My fingers traced the embossed title, missing the moments where Dimitri and I had read the book together. At least then I'd been able to be in his presence. Now, he only trained me and left. No more personal contact, besides that.

I read the lines that had been underlined by him, trying to peak into his mind. It wasn't difficult. Most of the lines were about love and blah blah blah.

I hid the book back under my mattress and trudged over to my window. It wasn't bright out, but in a matter of an hour or so, it would be. The snow was glistening gorgeously under the sunrise, a little of the pinks and oranges reflecting on it.

I scoffed. Soon it would be winter break, and I really would have nothing to do with myself.

I closed the curtains, deciding now was a good time to clean my room. It was getting to be too much of a mess, even for me.

Two hours later, my room was spotless. I checked in on Lissa cautiously. I felt a wave of relief when I realized Christian had left. I could finally sleep!

I turned out the lights, and I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

**TRSTRSTRS**

After training with Dimitri the next morning, I went to the library in search of Lissa.

I found them in a corner, looking over a book of their lineages. "Look, I have enough Dragomir blood for our children to count at Dragomirs!" Christian cooed.

The only time I ever heard him use that sickening tone of voice was when he and Lissa were discussing their future.

"You're already talking about procreating with, _that_?" I asked her.

Lissa winced a little, while Christian sneered at me. "Hi, Rose," she said.

"You're just jealous," Christian responded.

I smirked at him. "I'm jealous that she gets to see your pasty ass? Try again."

"Guys, please stop fighting," Lissa groaned. We glared at each other, but stopped throwing barbs back and forth.

"Did you hear about the Badica attack?" Lissa changed the subject.

I frowned, trying to recall any news of an attack on one of the royal families. "Um, no… when did that happen?"

"A few days ago, apparently," she answered. "Guardians found them, along with Guardian Schoenberg dead. They say that the wards were broken with a stake."

"But Strigoi can't touch stakes," I argued.

"Humans helped," Christian informed me.

"Humans… helping Strigoi? What has the world come to?"

They both shook their heads.

"Wasn't Guardian Schoenberg supposed to be one of the best?" I asked. I'd heard stories about him from novices. From what I'd been told, he was basically a legend. I'd even wondered if he even really existed.

Christian nodded.

"And now, he's dead."

Lissa bit her lip and I felt a little bit of sadness coming from her through the bond. She was so compassionate, I kind of envied it.

"Well, that changes everything, doesn't it?"

**TRSTRSTRS**

The next morning, I found Dimitri in the gym holding a silver stake.

"What's that for?" I asked.

"You," he said, very seriously.

"Huh?"

He laughed. "I figured that in light of the recent Badica attack, I should teach you how to use a stake."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Have you ever heard of Arthur Schoenberg?"

"Guardian Schoenberg? The head guardian of the Badicas?" I affirmed.

"Well, that just proved that no one is invincible," he explained. "As much I would love to say that I won't ever let you down, I can't make that promise."

I stared into his eyes. I knew it took a lot for him to say something like that. His job meant a lot to him, and I also knew that he was still haunted by Ivan Zeklos' death.

"Okay," I accepted.

"What can you tell me about silver stakes?" he asked.

I bit my lip. Honestly, I didn't know a ton. I knew that they were charmed by four elements and the easiest way to kill a Strigoi. And that they could break wards.

I told him all this. He spent the next hour teaching me about their properties, where the stake was supposed to be when you aimed it at a Strigoi, and how to hold it.

At the end of the lesson, he let me hold it.

It was beautiful. The lights gleamed off the silver, making it look just as dangerous as it was rumored to be. "Careful," Dimitri warned. "It's very dangerous to Moroi if you scratch them with it."

I nodded. I felt as if I was carrying the weight of the world in my hands. The stake was heavy, and the point looked oh-so sharp.

"Now," he began. "Can you tell me where the heart is?"

I placed my free hand over my left breast.

He shook his head.

"But that's where we put our hands for the Pledge of Allegiance!"

His lips curled up a little in one corner. "Your homework is to tell me where the heart is, and what protects it."

"Okay," I said.

He gave me a semi-stern look. "You're dismissed."

I snorted angrily as I left. Just dismissing me like that! He clearly didn't want to spend any extra time with me.

As I made my way to the commons, my thoughts were torn away from the sorry state of my non-existent love life to the whispers and giggles that seemed to come from all the students.

I'd have thought they were still talking about the Badica attack, but everyone was too happy for that. That was yesterday's news, apparently. Something new had come up.

After the feeders, I stopped at breakfast. "What's going on?" I asked Lissa.

Her eyes widened. "You haven't heard?"

I shook my head.

"The school is taking everyone to a ski resort after Christmas."

"What?" I was shocked. That had to cost a fortune… Why would they do that?

"It's this really expensive resort in Idaho," she explained. "Usually only really important royals go there."

"And they're just opening up to the public?" I asked.

"I think it's because their wards are as strong as the ones at Court," Christian butted into our conversation.

Understanding swept through me. They wanted to protect all of us, with the holidays.

Families were abundant at St. Vladimir's over the winter break. It would probably be better just to drop us off where there would definitely be enough guardians for all the Moroi and novices.

After I finished eating, I walked Lissa to Russian II and then headed to Russian I.

The day went on, rather boringly, until magic class. Mr. Ibanescue had us warm hot cocoa and roast marshmallows in honor of the impending winter holidays. I definitely enjoyed my s'mores and hot chocolate. I even managed to nab two packets of chocolate powder, instead of just one, remembering Dimitri's advice about how two was always better than one.

Christian watched me disgustedly. "I can't believe you've eaten that many s'mores."

I glared at him. "Do you have a problem with it, Sparky?"

"I don't know why you call me Sparky," he muttered. "You use the same element as me."

"I'm not a pyro, though!" I excused myself.

"Right," he goaded. "I know you have dreams of setting people on fire."

I narrowed my eyes. "I wouldn't _ever _do that," I said, maybe a little too sweetly.

He rolled his eyes, but I just smiled wickedly. "You have something on your face."

"Right," he said. "Like my nose? Or your fist?"

"As much as I would _love _for it to be my fist, it's chocolate," I told him. "I know you're meeting Lissa between classes for a little, _something-something_. I figured I didn't want to picture her kissing it off."

"You're disgusting," he snarked.

"I know you are but what am I?"

"I know you are but what am I?" he copied me.

"Shut up!" someone else in the class shouted.

Christian and I turned to glare at whomever had been listening in on our conversation.

Jesse Zeklos.

I couldn't believe that I had once thought he was hot.

"Stay out of this, dickhead," I told him.

"Miss Hathaway!"

Groaning, I turned towards Mr. Ibanescue.

"Miss Hathaway, you are not to use such language in my class!"

"But he is a dickhead," I told him, defending myself.

A vein bulged a little in his forehead. "Please leave the classroom, Miss Hathaway," he whispered, pointing towards the door.

"Are you sending me to Kirova?" I asked.

"No. I am just excusing you from class, since you can't seem to play well with others right now."

I grabbed my hot chocolate, bag, and threw a glare Christian's way when I noticed his smirk.

Whatever. I had better things to do than heat hot chocolate and roast marshmallows, anyway.

"Please return your mug, Miss Hathaway!" I heard Mr. Ibanescue call out.

Grinding my teeth, I threw my mug at the door behind me.

I honestly didn't know what had gotten into me. The bad mood that I'd managed to banish for a few hours this morning had come back full force.

I decided that maybe punching something would help. I hurried to my dorm to change before heading to the gym. When I got there, I realized that I couldn't use the gym. Novices used the gym during the early part of the school day.

How could I have been so stupid?

I stormed off without even thinking about where I was going. It was then that I ran into someone. A very small someone.

I heard an annoyed "oof."

I looked to see who I'd knocked down, only to notice a shock of red curls.

My mother!

"What are you doing here?"

She glared. "Is that how you greet your mother?"

I pulled a confused face. "Oh, is that who you are? Sorry, I haven't seen you in so long, I thought I might have found a new one."

She stood up dusting herself off. "You should be in class, Rosemarie."

How did she manage to make me feel so small? I was so much taller than her!

"I'm too cool for school," I responded acerbically.

She harrumphed. She began to say something, but I interrupted.

"I asked you this already, but I'll do it again. Why are you here?"

"I came here for work," she told me.

"Oh, is someone here a science experiment?" I asked.

"I'm here to study the newly discovered element, spirit," she ground out.

"Oh, what about it?" I asked. "How it allows Lissa to compel Moroi? Or how about how she can heal things? Or… maybe about how she brought me back from the dead?"

She pursed her lips. "You… died?"

"That's right, Mom," I said bitterly. "I died. If Lissa hadn't brought me back, would you have even attended my funeral?"

"You don't know what you're talking about, Rosemarie. I've been doing important work."

"Yeah, and forgot you had a daughter in the process," I muttered.

She began to say something, but was once again interrupted. For once, it wasn't me doing the interrupting.

"Rose!"

I would know that voice anywhere. Dimitri.

Oh no. No no no no. I did not want my mother and Dimitri to meet.

He got closer. "Why aren't you in class?"

I groaned. "I'd still like to know that as well, Rosemarie."

Dimitri turned towards my mother. "Ms. Hathaway," he greeted formally.

"Hello, Guardian, erm…"

"Belikov. I'm your daughter's guardian."

"You have a guardian?" she asked.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm not surprised you don't know that."

"Rose," Dimitri chastised. "Did you get sent out of class?"

Ah, the moment of truth.

"Yep," I answered. Rather calmly, impressively enough.

"What did you do this time?"

"Moi?" I asked, a hurt expression on my face.

He rolled his eyes. "Yes, you."

"Um, I may have used foul language when speaking to Mr. Ibanescue."

"But that's one of your favorite classes and teachers," Dimitri protested.

"Eh. We've all got our bad days."

His dark eyes assessed me, as if wondering what was wrong with me. "He didn't send you to see the Headmistress, did he?" Dimitri asked.

"Nope," I answered simply. "At the moment, I am just a free spirit, wandering around as I please."

Both Dimitri and my mother rolled their eyes.

It seemed my mother had had enough of my antics, because she began to walk away. She stopped for a moment, turned around, and said, "I'll see you around, Rosemarie."

When she was out of sight, I growled.

"What's gotten into you today?" Dimitri asked. "I know that elemental control is your favorite class, but you cursed at the teacher?"

I bit my lip, my anger evaporating a little. "Well, it was mostly at Jesse Zeklos. He was eavesdropping on the conversation Spar- Christian and I were having."

"What'd you say?" Dimitri groaned.

"I called him a dickhead. And then proceeded to tell Mr. Ibanescue that Jesse was being a dickhead."

He groaned again, but a tiny smile escaped his mask. "Oh, Roza," he sighed. "What am I going to do with you?"

I had a lot of things I was eager to suggest to him. _Hug me. Kiss me. Make out with me. Make love with me…_

"You could tell me why you never act normal anymore," I told him abruptly.

I could tell that he hadn't been expecting me to say that. Hell, I hadn't been expecting me to say that. I wanted to take the words back immediately. Things may have been a little awkward between us lately, but it could have been worse.

"This is how I _should_ have been acting toward you from the start," Dimitri hissed.

He was angry. Why was he angry?

I looked up into his face. His dark eyes were looking intently at, well, anything but me.

How could I make him see that I didn't care what other people thought of me?

"Class should be over soon," Dimitri said abruptly. "You might want to head on over to your next class."

I glared at him. He was avoiding this discussion!

"We will talk about this, Dimitri Belikov," I threatened.

He ignored me. "Why don't I walk you to your next class?"

I pursed my lips, glaring up at him. Nevertheless, I followed him as he took me to Ancient Poetry.

"Please, Rose," he sighed. "Please don't get sent out of this class."

"I should be okay," I told him agitatedly. "Lissa's in here."

He nodded a little stiffly. He began to walk away.

I felt like something had shifted, once more, in our relationship; I couldn't place it, however. I felt the same towards him, and I assumed that he felt the same way about me. Things were different, though.

I watched him as he walked away, his duster fluttering behind his tall form.

"See you after school, Dimitri," I called out.

He turned towards me and waved, a reserved half-smile present on his face.

What had happened between us?

**TRSTRSTRS**

"You'll never guess who I ran into," I uttered to Lissa as soon as she walked into the classroom.

"Who?" she asked.

"My mother!"

She gasped, her green eyes widening. "What?"

"She's apparently here to observe you working with spirit," I told her.

She frowned. "Um, doesn't she do something with science?" she asked, confused.

"Yeah," I muttered. "Apparently, you're her next experiment. Expect her to come bother you sometime in the near future."

She nodded, astounded. "Is she gonna stay for Christmas?"

"No idea. If she does, I'm sure she won't stop by to see me."

"I'm sure she cares about you, Rose," Lissa assured me. "She's just busy."

"Busy every Christmas, birthday, Easter, and Thanksgiving for thirteen years?" I huffed. "I somehow doubt it."

Court was closed on holidays, or so we had learned in Moroi Culture I.

The bell rang, and the teacher immediately closed to classroom door. "Today, class, we'll discuss _The Iliad _by Homer."

That sounded dreadfully boring. I began to tune out her lesson immediately.

**TRSTRSTRS**

During Pre-Calc, I thought about how Dimitri had given me a lesson in using stakes that morning. Where was the heart?

"Don't burst a blood vessel, Rose," Mason joked.

"Huh?"

He grinned. "You look like you're thinking too hard."

"Oh. Uh, I was just trying to remember where the heart is," I told him, only a little embarrassed.

"The heart?" he asked. I nodded. "That's easy!" He pointed below his left pectoral, a little to the left of where I'd originally thought.

"There?" I asked. "But aren't your ribs there?"

He nodded again. "That's why it's so hard for guardians to stake Strigoi, you know. The ribs and sternum are in the way of the heart. Nature's own defense to the second most vital organ."

Somehow, Mason had managed to answer not just one, but both of Dimitri's questions from that morning.

"Wow, Mase," I teased. "Are you a nerd or something?"

He looked a little indignant. "I just have to pay attention. Can't kill a Strigoi very easily if I don't know that."

"You could always set him on fire," I joked, lighting a small fire in my palm.

He balked, and the teacher immediately came over to see what was going on. I let go of the flame quickly, trying to avoid anymore trouble for the day. Dimitri had been right about one thing, I didn't need anymore of that.

She eyed me suspiciously for a moment before going to help a student who had her hand raised.

Mason and I immediately began to laugh at our close call.

**TRSTRSTRS**

After school, I stormed into the gym. Dimitri was there, already reading one of his westerns.

I ran up to one of the dummies, hitting it exactly where Mason had shown me. "Here," I said. "The heart is right here."

He glanced up from his book, raising an eyebrow. "And what is protecting the heart?" he asked patiently.

"The ribs and sternum," I recited.

He smiled, finally. "I'm proud of you, Rose."

I raised both my eyebrows. "Um, for just asking a novice where the heart is?"

He chuckled. "You still took some initiative, and that's good."

He placed a bookmark on the page before carefully placing the book on the floor. He walked towards me, brandishing a stake.

"Here," he said, handing it to me. I held it for the second time, well aware of the death it was capable of dealing. Well, at least when someone fully capable was wielding it.

"Remember how to hold it?" Dimitri asked.

I nodded, placing my fingers where he'd shown me earlier. "Good, Rose. Now, let's practice on the dummies."

"Really?" I asked.

He nodded. He pulled out another stake, and I figured this was his own personal stake. It had something written in Cyrillic, which took me a moment to decipher. _Они на первом месте. __They come first._

"They come first?" I asked him.

"It's what novices are told when they begin their guardian training," Dimitri explained.

"Why?" I was shocked.

"Because once you're a guardian, you have to do everything you can to protect the Moroi. It's a life of service and honor."

I frowned.

"I can explain more to you after we practice your staking," he said.

"Um, okay."

He began to demonstrate the easiest ways to stake a Strigoi. "The easiest way is to slide it between the ribs and up."

He showed me what to do, and then gestured for me to try.

I tried to use one hand like he did, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't slide it in. I resorted to using both my hands, and finally succeeded.

"Impressive, Roza," he commented.

My heart did a flip-flop. "But I suck at it," I told him.

He shook his head. "Moroi are naturally slimmer. I know that it usually takes dhampirs a while to be able to wield a stake, too," he assured.

"You're not just saying that to make me feel better?" I asked.

"No. It's honestly impressive that you can do that. Most Moroi wouldn't even glance twice at a stake, let alone think of using it in self-defense."

He showed me a few more techniques which turned out to be even more taxing than the first technique.

At the end of the session, I was wiping sweat off my brow. "I really hope that you won't have to use that stake," he told me. "But I want you to carry it if we go off campus, just in case."

"Okay," I agreed. If it made Dimitri feel any better, I definitely would.

He took the stake back, and as I saw him putting his own away, I was reminded of my earlier question.

"Comrade?" I asked.

"Yes, Roza?" he answered.

"Can you continue what you were saying earlier?"

He gave me a questioning look.

"About your stake," I clarified.

He gracefully sat down against the wall, patting the space on the floor next to him.

"So why does it say, 'They come first'?"

He sighed. "I have a feeling you're not going to like this."

I gave him a look, slightly worried.

"You know guardians are expected to lay our life on the line if the life of a Moroi is at stake."

I bit my lip angrily. "Yes." I'd grown to despise that since I had met Dimitri. It wasn't fair.

"Well, they always tell you, 'they come first'. I suppose it's to condition you to give your life up without a second thought. I liked the inscription, because I'm the only guardian in my family. I wanted to remind myself that I should always protect Moroi life. Also, I liked that the instrument I'd be using to do it said so."

I gaped at him. "But it's not fair," I told him.

"For some people, being a guardian isn't the right choice. It's something every dhampir has to decide."

"Why can't Moroi learn to protect themselves?" I asked.

"Very few people even think to ask that," he said seriously. "Actually, I know someone else who is like that…"

"Who?"

"How about I introduce you to her?" he suggested. "She's actually here, at St. Vladimir's."

"What?"

"She's visiting her nephew."

"Well, what are you waiting for?" I jumped up, pulling on his hand. "Let's go!"

He laughed, "Okay, okay. Hold on just a second, let me make a call."

He pulled out a cell phone. "Hey," he said. "Yeah. I have somebody who wants to meet you. A student. She's interested in what you do. What? Where are you?"

The one-sided conversation was kind of boring, but I kept my ear out anyway.

I wasn't able to discern who was on the other end of the phone

"Okay," he said. "We'll see you in a few minutes."

It was the least formal I'd ever heard him with anyone. It was even less formal than he was with me. I felt a little jealous, but wondered who he considered such a close friend.

"Come on," he gently grabbed my hand for a moment. "It's time for you to meet her."


	12. Chapter 12

Dimitri led me towards the wood. "Why is your friend out here, Comrade?"

"She's… not exactly welcomed by the other holiday guests," he told me cautiously.

I narrowed my eyes. For that to be the case, she must be an ax murderer.

We ended up at a small pond. I felt Lissa through the bond. I felt her sappy warm feelings and knew that Christian must be there as well. I finally saw them. Lissa and Christian were ice skating. As was another figure, a woman with an enchanting mane of raven black hair.

It looked just like Christian's, actually. When we got closer, I noticed a scar on her face. Woah.

She must have heard our noisy clomping through the snow, because in mere seconds she had begun skating towards us.

"Dimka!" she called out.

Wow. She was familiar enough with him to call him by his nickname. I'd called him Dimka a few times, usually only teasingly, or when I'd tried to comfort him on Halloween, but I preferred to call him by his given name, or Comrade.

"What's a Dimka, anyway?" I asked him.

He chuckled. "It's just a Russian nickname."

"Oh. Like Lissa's would be Vasya," I murmured.

He nodded. "Tasha!" he called out to her when she'd gotten closer.

"How have you been?" she asked him cheerily.

I took their moment of conversation to size her up. She had a giant scar across her face, but it did nothing to lessen her beauty. Her eyes were the same icy blue as Christian's. Her face held a charming smile, dimpling her rosy cheeks.

She must be an Ozera, I realized. She wasn't an ax murderer. No, she was just a social pariah.

"Tasha, this is Rose Hathaway, my charge," he introduced.

"Hey, Rose," she said. "I'm Tasha Ozera," she stuck out her hand.

I liked her already. I took her offered hand, shaking it politely.

"You brought her to see me, Dimka?"

He nodded. "I thought she would be interested in what you do."

She raised a perfect eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Rose has me training her," he said proudly.

Her face broke into a smile. "My kind of woman. Have you taught her how to wield a stake?"

"Yes. She's quite proficient, even after just one afternoon of practice."

"What element do you specialize in, Rose?" she asked eagerly.

"Fire."

"Are you in class with Christian?"

"Yep. I've got tons of stories, if you'd like some."

Christian skated to a halt behind her. "I've got plenty of stories of her, too. Like the one from today."

"No, I don't think-"

"She threw a mug of hot chocolate at the door," he told everyone.

Dimitri groaned. "You left that part out of your story, Rose."

I shrugged. "Didn't seem all that important. Though, it was a waste of perfectly good hot chocolate."

Christian rolled his eyes. "You called Jesse Zeklos a dickhead."

"So?" I asked, my voice raising in pitch. Lissa skated over now, too. "He was being a dickhead. Anyway, you aren't all that innocent, either."

"I never claimed I was," he quipped caustically.

"Oh no, now you've got them going, Tasha," Lissa whined. "They go on for hours sometimes."

"We do not," we defended at the same time. I harrumphed, and glared at him. I noticed that Christian had taken the same exact stance.

Tasha giggled. "Oh, you two are just alike!"

I shook my head vehemently.

She got off the ice, onto the dock. "Why don't we go inside the cabin?" she asked.

They placed their boots on their feet, and we trekked a little further into the woods to a cabin.

Dimitri and Tasha began a comfortable conversation once we'd reached the cabin. Lissa and I warmed up by the fire, and I eavesdropped.

They swapped stories about people whom they both knew.

"No," Dimitri said. "He swore he never wanted any kids!"

"But now he has five!" Tasha giggled. "His wife blew up like a balloon, got even bigger after each kid. You should hear him, he talks in baby talk all the time!"

Dimitri gasped.

I'd never known that Dimitri was such a gossip.

"Of course, I bet no one would know if you spoke in baby talk," she smiled. "You'd probably be talking in Russian to your kids."

I blinked. Dimitri, with kids? I felt an irrational surge of jealousy. I didn't want anyone to have Dimitri's babies. Well, no one but me.

That thought shocked me. In fact, it sent a whole shockwave through my body. I didn't even like kids all that much. Dimitri and I weren't even in a relationship, and now I was fantasizing about having his children? What was wrong with me?

I bit my lip, tuning back into their conversation.

Dimitri and Tasha had an easy way of speaking to each other, one that took years of friendship to perfect.

Now, they were talking about her karate studio that she worked at in Minneapolis.

"You fight?" I asked.

She nodded eagerly. "Oh yes. I really enjoy feeling empowered. I feel a little safer, since I don't have a guardian."

"So did you start fighting before or after that happened to your face?" I asked abruptly.

Shock rang through the bond. "Rose!" Lissa exclaimed.

Tasha's face, however, showed a hint of respect, as did Dimitri's.

"After," she responded.

"You got it protecting Christian, right?"

She nodded.

I liked this woman.

"That's awesome!" I said. "Well, not the, you know, Strigoi part. But, I think it's awesome that you protect yourself, instead of constantly relying on dhampirs."

She grinned. "You wanna know another secret?"

Eagerly, I shook my head yes.

"I also practice offensive magic."

My eyebrows rose up on their own accord. "What?" I asked. "But I thought that wasn't allowed."

"It isn't. But it's very helpful against Strigoi," she confided.

I'd never given that serious thought before. Fighting Strigoi with magic? That could save so many guardian lives… that could save Dimitri's life, if he needed it!

"I want in on it," I said immediately.

She smiled. "Well, you'll have to join us next time. I'll tell Christian to tell you next time we meet up for it."

"Great!"

Soon, we all scattered our different ways.

"Wow," I told Dimitri. "She's awesome."

"I thought you'd like her," he smiled. "You both have very similar interests."

I nodded in agreement. "That karate studio she works at? It's in the human world?"

"Yes," he informed me.

"Wow."

I'd never thought much of working with humans. How cool would it be to do something I actually liked?

He dropped me off at my dorm, dinner long since over.

"See you in the morning, Rose."

"Bye, Comrade," I whispered.

**TRSTRSTRS**

The next morning, I woke up for our usual training session.

I cursed when I realized that I was once again running late. Dimitri was going to kill me!

I hurriedly dressed, throwing my hair into a messy ponytail.

When I got there, Dimitri was once again reading a western novel. It was _Shalako_, actually.

"Dobroye utro, Tovarishch," I said cheerily, hoping to distract him.

He rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Dobroye utro, Roza."

My name rolled off his tongue like honey, sending shivers up my spine.

"Do you happen to know what happened to my other copy of _Shalako_?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

I avoided his gaze. "What's _Shalako?_" I feigned ignorance.

He smirked at me, a rare expression on his face. It was strange, really. Usually he was either very straight-forward, or just plain stoic. "I know you took it, Roza," he teased. "You can just admit that you like a western. I won't hold it against you."

"I don't like any books," I maintained. "Especially not ones written before the Berlin Wall came down."

Exasperatedly, he said, "Your worst subject is history, yet you know everything about eastern Europe."

"Well, how else am I going to get jokes about you?" I quipped. "Besides westerns, and your love of those unbearable eighties and country genres."

"We'll be practicing staking for the first half hour today," he finally said, getting down to business.

I nodded, holding my hand out for the stake I'd practiced with the day before.

Thirty minutes later, Dimitri told me we'd begin sparring after a quick water break.

I still wasn't very good at sparring, definitely nowhere near as skilled as Dimitri. However, I had noticed that I had improved a lot since we had begun to spar weeks ago.

We circled each other.

I allowed Dimitri to strike first, hoping that my best offense was defense. He aimed a punch at my face, which I somehow managed to block. I wasn't able to block the one that came immediately after, though. It had been thrown with his left hand instead of right, a quick upper-cut. It lacked the brute force I figured he'd use against a Strigoi, probably attempting to protect me, even as we fought.

Nevertheless, my head spun. Angrily, I sent a punch at his solar plexus, hoping to wind him. It didn't appear to affect him, so I moved onto the next step in Miss Congeniality's self-defense acronym. In-step.

I stepped on his foot.

Still nothing. If anything, he looked mildly amused.

I began to aim for his nose, but he swept my feet out from under me, much as he had on that first day we'd sparred.

Straddling me, he placed a hand on my chest. "Dead," he whispered.

He didn't move from his position on top of me, however.

Strands of loose hair were hanging around his face. He had a tiny bit of sweat on his brow, but it just made him look like he was glowing. His eyes were fiery, darker than normal. His body was pressing against mine, and I craved more contact.

I leaned my face up towards his, and finally, we kissed.

This time, there was no hallelujah chorus. There were no fireworks. There was a fire running through my veins, though. There was no voice present- Victor's voice- telling me to think only of him. It was just me and Dimitri.

I was kissing him, and he was kissing me back.

It was somehow sweet and lustful at the same time.

It got much more lust filled as the kiss went on, however. His tongue slid along my lips, asking permission. I opened my mouth, my tongue fighting his for dominance. He may have been stronger, but I had a feeling that he saw me as his equal, and I was going to prove it.

His calloused hand found its way to the side of my face, caressing my cheek lovingly. His other hand wrapped itself in my hair, twirling and tugging a single strand.

I trailed kisses down the side of his face and down his neck, causing him to moan.

"Roza," he sighed. He began to reciprocate, giving my neck extra attention. I didn't know how he'd figured out that sucking on my neck, in the juncture between my jaw and ear, was my favorite spot.

"Comrade," I moaned.

And just like that, he stopped.

"I can't, Rose," he muttered, turning away from me.

Was he rejecting me? _Again?_

"Why don't you want me?" I asked.

He ignored me, pointedly looking everywhere but me.

"Why don't you want to be with me?" I rephrased.

Tears were welling up in my eyes. More than anything, I just wanted Dimitri.

"You know why," he whispered. "It's not that I don't want to… it's that I _can't._"

"Don't tell me that you can't, Dimitri! You know perfectly well that you can! You're just scared of what people will think!"

"I'm not scared. It's just not right."

I pulled him down by his hair, at my face level. I kissed him again, this time just to evoke a reaction. "I know you feel something, Dimitri. And anything that feels so good can't be wrong."

He escaped my grasp. "No, Roza," he maintained. "I can't."

He began to walk away. "No more training until after winter break."

I winced, feeling completely rejected. Angrily, I hit the nearest punching bag.

**TRSTRSTRS**

The next few days were rather miserable. I was absolutely bored, having nothing to do after school. I ended up spending just as much time training, though usually I would only run and lift weights.

I also spent a fair amount of time with Tasha and Christian, learning offensive spells.

The day before Christmas was particularly difficult, because the spell required a lot of power.

"Why can't I just use a consuming spell?" Christian asked.

Tasha sighed. "Because that takes even more energy, and will take longer to recover from. It's easier to use fire as a distraction, instead. Give someone time to stake the Strigoi, while helping them."

Christian and I both nodded. I hadn't even given thought to using a consuming spell, but Tasha's logic made sense.

Lissa watched from the wall, a little envious. She wished she had someone to practice spirit with. The only person she had was Ms. Carmack, and she was just as clueless as Lissa. She also was jealous that we could actually use our magic, because hers was still being restricted by the pills.

Spirit was beautiful. It was music and light and life. It was Lissa's very essence. I had to remind myself of that whenever I started to sympathize with her. Whenever she used it, it took away her very essence, causing the madness. Lissa needed to be protected from that.

Personally, I was glad that she couldn't touch the magic. I had seen the havoc it wreaked on her emotions, the pain it had caused her. I didn't want her to go through that again. She didn't feel the same way, obviously. She thought it was worth it, and part of me didn't blame her. I'd been in her head a few times when she'd healed, and the magic she wielded was completely different feeling from my own element.

I focused once again on the spell Tasha was teaching us. It was taxing, much more tiring than regular magic was.

Perhaps that was the reason no one used it anymore, not because it was wrong.

What was so wrong about using what we'd been born with, anyway? The dhampirs used their own abilities to protect us. They honed and worked for it, yes, but they did. Why was it okay for them to fight, but not us?

"What are you thinking about, Rose?" Tasha asked.

I shook myself out of my reverie. "Just offensive magic in general," I told her. "I don't know why it's so wrong for Moroi to fight, and why dhampirs are practically forced to."

"Forced to?" she asked curiously.

"Just… you know. A lot of dhampirs choose the guardian lifestyle, but how many of just do because of the stigma of choosing to stay with their family?"

Tasha and Christian both blinked, and I felt Lissa's confusion through the bond. I could tell she'd never given it a lot of thought, past the few moments that Victor had inspired her back in that cabin. Even then, her thoughts had been centered on the Moroi, not the dhampirs.

Nobody ever seemed to think about the dhampirs, perhaps even they didn't.

The thing about having feelings for Dimitri, and little to no friends, was that I thought a lot about him, and even his species as a whole. I'd especially given it all some deep thought since I'd seen his stake. _They come first. _Maybe I should have felt better that they were trained to put us, our lives, above themselves. All I could think, though, was that it wasn't fair.

Especially not when we had our own ways of protecting ourselves. Magic.

Meeting Tasha had opened up a whole new way of thinking to me, one that would have definitely been discouraged had some other adult besides she or Dimitri heard me spout off about it.

I dispelled all thoughts of Dimitri, still hurt and angry over his rejection of me earlier in the week.

"Wow, you sure have given this a lot of thought," Tasha finally said, frowning a little. Her icy eyes were downcast, and I could see the wheels turning in her head. "You know, I could use someone like you working with me."

"Um, in the karate studio?" I was totally confused.

"No," she giggled a little. Even her giggle was adorable. "I've been working on a way to convince Queen Tatiana about offensive magic."

"Queen Tatiana?"

She nodded. "Yeah. I mean, especially with the recent Badica attack, I think it would be a good time to broach the subject."

"I can't do it now, though," I argued. "I don't know enough about it, and I'm not graduated."

She gave me a sly grin. "By the time you graduate, you'll be great at it."

I looked at her skeptically. "What will you do until then?"

She shrugged delicately. "Gather more offensive magic users, I suppose."

"Well, I'd be down for working with you," I smiled. "It sounds right up my alley."

She returned my smile. "Great! You have yourself a deal!"

**TRSTRSTRS**

Christmas morning finally came. Lissa called me, inviting me to come to brunch with her, Tasha, and Christian.

As I walked there, gifts in hand, I looked down at my outfit. I was wearing a sweater that Lissa had bought me last month at JC Penney and a pair of jeans from before we'd returned to the academy. I hoped it looked okay.

Tasha answered the door when I knocked, smiling immediately. "Merry Christmas, Rose! Here, let me put the gifts under the tree!"

"Merry Christmas," I murmured.

I surveyed the room, immediately noticed that not only were Lissa and Christian there, but Dimitri as well.

I tried not to stare at him, lest I give myself away. As I sat down next to Lissa, I felt Dimitri's eyes on me. I turned to look at him again, this time really taking the time to examine him.

He'd avoided me since that disastrous kiss in the gym. He wore a nice sweater that fit him beautifully, as well as a pair of dark wash jeans. I didn't think I saw him in jeans very often. More often than not, he was either in shorts or guardian pants. Christmas was probably a pretty big deal in Russia, too.

"Merry Christmas, Rose!" Lissa practically sang, her joy thrumming through the bond exuberantly.

Most Moroi absolutely loved Christmas, but I wasn't a big fan. I think it had something to do with no one ever visiting me during the holidays.

"Merry Christmas Liss, Christian."

Christian looked shocked that I had included him in my greeting.

"Hey Sparky, you got a Christmas miracle. Don't complain," I griped.

Lissa couldn't hold back her smile. I raised both my eyebrows at her.

"I'm so glad you're being nice to each other on Christmas!" she scooped us both up into a hug.

I nearly gagged. "Ugh, my Christmas miracle only goes so far, and that crossed a line," I told her.

She nodded, still incredibly happy.

I looked over at Dimitri again. By now, he and Tasha were conversing. They'd probably been talking before I'd arrived, too.

For a moment, I felt a brief flare of jealousy. He didn't have any qualms about talking to _her, _and she was Moroi, too.

Right as we sat down to eat, a knock sounded from the door. Lissa and I shot each other quizzical looks. "Isn't everyone here?" Christian asked.

Tasha didn't bother to answer him as she got up to answer whomever was interrupting our meal.

Surprises of surprises, it was my mother at the door.

"Janine!" Tasha said merrily. "You made it!"

My mom looked uncomfortable as she walked in, just giving Tasha a small grimace. She probably didn't leave the lab often enough to have any social skills at all. She definitely must have missed every Christmas for the last thirteen years, since I hadn't spent one Christmas with her since.

She had the nerve to sit down in the empty seat on my left, and I wondered if Tasha had planned this out.

Despite my mood souring further, the meal was good. After we ate, we exchanged gifts.

I opened a really nice package from Tasha, finding a red silk dress beneath the wrapping. It was one of the best gifts I'd ever been given. "Thanks, Tasha. You really shouldn't have," I told her, shocked to have been given such an expensive present when we'd met only a week and a half before.

"I just hope I got your size right," she exclaimed jovially.

I turned and watched as Dimitri opened the gift I'd ordered him online, using Lissa's credit card.

A look of surprise flitted across his face before he schooled his features once again. "Thank you, Rose," he quietly said. Tasha turned to look, too.

"Legends of the Fall?" she asked skeptically.

He smiled.

"I didn't know if you'd already seen it," I shrugged. "But it's got cowboys and Indians and a really depressing character arc."

He raised an eyebrow.

I blushed a little. "Um, sorry, but I watched it before I gave it to you. I was curious."

"Rose," Lissa scolded. "Don't say Indians. Native Americans! Also, you used his gift before you gave it to him?"

Dimitri just laughed in response, as if he hadn't expected anything less from me.

"Thank you, Rose," he repeated. "It means a lot to me."

"Well," I drawled. "It was either that or Brokeback Mountain."

I grinned. "So you're welcome."

My mom handed me a package, wrapped precisely in plain silver gift wrap. What I found was a weird eye thing.

"It's a _nazar,_" she explained. "It's supposed to protect you… it's Turkish."

I'd heard that my father was Turkish. I wondered if he'd given it to her. "Thanks, mom," I said, hugging her a little awkwardly.

Her side of the hug was just as awkward as mine, and even more stiff.

She nodded, smiling a little, her lips closed.

She walked me back to my dorm. "You can come in if you want," I invited her hesitantly.

She looked shocked, but followed me in. She glanced around, taking in my room. She stared at the picture of Lissa and I on Halloween a few years before, before turning to the books piled on my desk. "Are these for class?" she inquired.

I shook my head. "I'm just interested in animals."

"That's interesting," she said. I think she was trying to be personable. Of course, she would have known all these things about me if she'd been around, or at least bothered to call or e-mail once in a while.

I shrugged.

"Thanks for the gift," I said again. "I really like it."

"I'm glad," she said. She was a woman of few words.

"I've heard that Guardian Belikov is one of the best guardians around," she commented. Was she attempting to make small talk?

"He's pretty cool," I tried to sound nonchalant.

"I was talking to Lady Ozera, Natasha, and she was telling me that she asked him to be her guardian."

My jaw dropped open. "But he's _my _guardian," I said a little childishly.

"Guardians get moved around all the time," she shrugged. "I don't understand why you were even given a guardian in the first place." Seeing my face, she actually backpedaled. "I'm glad you were given one, of course. It's just not general protocol. You would probably just be assigned a new one, anyhow."

"Why would she ask him to be her guardian?" I asked stupidly.

"They're friends. And she's willing to have children with him."

She made it sound as if that were a blessing for him.

"It's a great opportunity, and I don't see why he wouldn't take it…"

I tuned her out. I couldn't concentrate on anything she said when all I could think about was Dimitri. Dimitri and Tasha. Dimitri leaving me for Tasha. Dimitri and Tasha, sleeping together, having children together, living together.

Dimitri was supposed to be _mine. My _guardian_. My _boyfriend_._

I realized that my mother was still talking.

"I'm kind of tired," I interrupted abruptly.

She frowned. "Alright. I'll leave."

She seemed to shut down immediately, and I felt a little bad about it. Maybe we'd have made progress today if I hadn't interrupted her like that.

"Thanks," I said. "Um, and thanks for the eye thing. And for talking with me," I tried to make amends.

She nodded again, immediately leaving.

"Merry Christmas," I called out to her half-heartedly.

As soon as she was out of sight, my thoughts immediately turned back towards Dimitri.

I was almost sure that he would take Tasha's offer. Why wouldn't he? She was beautiful, smart, spunky, and closer to his age than I was. She would certainly be ready to have kids sooner than I would. Not only that, but he probably wouldn't worry too much about her reputation, since she was already an outcast in society.

I didn't really have much to offer Dimitri, in retrospect. Who was I but some high school girl who had a crush on her guardian? He had to help me with homework, for cripes sake.

I pulled off my shoes, jeans, and bra before falling into bed. I tossed and turned the whole night, trying to rid my mind of the images of Dimitri and Tasha together.

**I am so sorry that this was so late! I've been so busy! I moved to college on the 10th, and since then I've been constantly going to soccer practice. It may take longer now to get the chapters out, and I'm sorry about that.**


End file.
